Chinese premier to visit N. Korea from Oct. 4+

BEIJING, Sept. 26 Kyodo - China's Premier Wen Jiabao will visit North Korea from Oct. 4 to attend commemorative events to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which falls on Oct. 6, according to Chinese diplomatic sources.

The sources said Wen is scheduled to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
In that meeting, the Chinese premier is expected to encourage Pyongyang to
return to the table of the six-party talks on North Korea's denuclearization,
which it quit in April.
On Sept. 18, Kim met with a Chinese presidential envoy, State Councilor Dai
Bingguo, in Pyongyang and told him North Korea hopes to solve the
denuclearization issue through ''bilateral and multilateral talks,'' diplomatic
sources said recently.
Kim's remarks were taken to mean North Korea prioritizes holding direct talks
with the United States.
It was unclear, however, whether his reference to ''multilateral talks'' means
North Korea intends to return to the stalled six-party talks that had involved
North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
North Korean officials earlier this year declared the six-party talks to be
''dead.''
But Chinese President Hu Jintao told South Korean President Lee Myung Bank in a
bilateral summit last Wednesday that there remains a possibility that North
Korea will return to the six-party talks.
The United States has said it is only willing to hold bilateral talks with
North Korea on the denuclearization issue within a multilateral context.
==Kyodo