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Updated Wednesday, April 15, 2009 10:10 am TWN, By Frank Ching, Special to The China Post

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World pushes for six-party talks

Despite the political upheavals in Thailand that aborted summit meetings scheduled in Pattaya between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its dialogue partners, the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea managed to meet and reach agreement on pushing forward the six-party talks in the wake of North Korea's rocket launch.

And in the United Nations, Japan and the five permanent members of the Security Council agreed on a compromise. Instead of passing a binding resolution, they agreed on issuing a president's statement, which is somewhat less forceful.

The world looks to China to reconvene the six-party talks, which have broken down over procedures to verify Pyongyang¡¦s nuclear declaration, which it issued in June 2008. Beijing therefore has to weigh the international outrage over the controversial launch against North Korea¡¦s likely reaction to any condemnation by the United Nations. The compromise of a presidential statement was, in the circumstances, the only possible decision.

A Security Council resolution, favored by Japan and the United States, could well have closed the door to a resumption of the six-party talks, which stalled last December.

Even a presidential statement will trigger a strong reaction but it would probably leave the door open to future talks.

The North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was re-elected last Thursday by the Supreme People's Assembly to a third term. The 68-year-old Mr. Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke last August and has visibly aged since then. He is still in charge of his reclusive nation but what will happen after he departs the scene is a big question mark.

China and North Korea are celebrating the 60th anniversary of their establishment of diplomatic relations on 6 October 1949, only five days after the proclamation of the People's Republic, and 2009 has been dubbed a year of friendship by the two countries.

North Korea's premier, Kim Yong-il-who is not related to Kim Jong-il-paid a goodwill visit to China last month as part of the year's festivities.

While the two countries maintain cordial relations, the relationship is not the close alliance that it was in the 1950s, when China sent troops to fight alongside North Korean soldiers against American and other allied forces on the South Korean side. At the time, China described the relationship as being as close as “lips and teeth.”

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