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China urges N Korea to talk again N Korea to restore army hotline
(about 5 hours later)
The Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged North Korea to return to the negotiating table over its controversial nuclear programme. North Korea has told South Korea that it will restore a cross-border military hotline it severed earlier this month.
Mr Hu told North Korean Premier Kim Yong-il to co-operate with efforts to resume stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear activities. The North cut the last line of quick contact between the two in protest at a US-South Korean military drill, which it sees as a prelude to a US invasion.
Chinese state media said Mr Hu told Mr Kim China was willing to work with other parties to restart the talks. The joint manoeuvres, which have since ended, further heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Tensions surrounding North Korea's nuclear capabilities are high. Earlier, China's president urged the North to return to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme.
We hope that relevant parties can consider the whole situation, appropriately resolve their differences and promote the progress of the six-party talks Chinese President Hu Jintao North Korea is threatening to launch a "satellite", which observers say is probably a missile, in the next few weeks. The six-party talks, which also include South Korea, the US, Japan, and Russia, aim to offer aid to Pyongyang in return for the North ending its controversial nuclear activities.
The six-party talks - involving the US, Japan, China, Russia and North and South Korea - aim to offer aid to Pyongyang in return for the North moving to end its nuclear programme. We hope that relevant parties can consider the whole situation, appropriately resolve their differences and promote the progress of six-party talks Chinese President Hu Jintao But negotiations have been deadlocked for months because of a dispute with the US over how to verify the North's full range of past nuclear activities.
'Resolve differences' The situation has been further enflamed by the North's announcement that it plans to test-fire a rocket early next month.
"We hope that relevant parties can consider the whole situation, appropriately resolve their differences and promote the progress of the six-party talks," Xinhua news agency quoted Mr Hu as saying. Concerns voiced
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang would not elaborate on what steps China was planning to take, but said Beijing hoped the next round of talks can be held as soon as possible. Seoul's unification ministry said the North had sent a message announcing that the hotline would be reconnected at 0800 on Saturday (2300 GMT on Friday).
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told Mr Kim a day earlier that China wants to "actively push forward" the deadlocked negotiations. The hotline is intended as a means of direct communication at a time of high tension. It is also used to co-ordinate the passage of people and goods through the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone.
China's chief delegate to the nuclear talks, Wu Dawei, visited North Korea without fanfare in February seeking a breakthrough, South Korean and Japanese media reported at the time. Beijing has not confirmed the trip. class="" href="/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2564241.stm">North Korea's missile programme
China has been hosting the talks which had been making progress until North Korea abruptly stopped disabling its nuclear programme last August. The border between the two Koreas has been intermittently closed since the communication lines were cut on 9 March - when the US-South Korea drill began - stranding South Korea workers at a shared industrial estate and badly affecting businesses there.
Talks in December failed to resolve a dispute with the US over how to verify the North's full range of past nuclear activities. The North's move comes just hours after Beijing urged North Korea to restart talks on its nuclear programme.
Missile worries "We hope that relevant parties can consider the whole situation, appropriately resolve their differences and promote the progress of the six-party talks," Xinhua news agency quoted President Hu Jintao as saying.
On Wednesday, North Korea reasserted its right to launch a satellite into space, saying Russia, Iran, India and many other countries have been pursuing peaceful space programmes, according to the country's official Korean Central News Agency. China has voiced its concern over the growing tensions on the Korean peninsula over North Korea's planned rocket launch.
class="" href="/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2564241.stm">North Korea's missile programme South Korea and the US say Pyongyang may be preparing to test-fire a long-range missile and have warned it against the launch planned for April. The North insists it is preparing to send up a communications satellite - and that any attempt to shoot it down would result in war.
The North insists it is preparing to send up a communications satellite.
The US, Japan and South Korea have all expressed concerns that the North is actually planning to test-fire a long-range missile.The US, Japan and South Korea have all expressed concerns that the North is actually planning to test-fire a long-range missile.
North Korea is banned from firing either device under a UN Security Council resolution prohibiting it from ballistic activity.North Korea is banned from firing either device under a UN Security Council resolution prohibiting it from ballistic activity.
Pyongyang has said the launch will take place between 4-8 April, and that any attempt to shoot it down would result in war. Tensions have been high between North and South Korea since the South's conservative President Lee Myung-Bak scrapped his predecessors' policy of offering virtually unconditional aid to Pyongyang.
North Korean Premier Kim Yong-il - who is not related to leader Kim Jong-il - arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a five-day trip. North and South Korea technically remain in a state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty.