BEIJING, (AFP) - North Korea's second ranking leader was scheduled to meet with China's two most powerful men as Beijing persisted in its efforts to revive stalled talks on the nuclear standoff.
Pyongyang's top lawmaker Kim Yong-Nam was slated to have talks with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, both members of a new generation of Chinese leaders with few sentimental ties to traditional ally North Korea.
"During the meetings, they will discuss the political exchanges and the relations between our two sides," foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told a regular briefing. "(The nuclear talks) will also be touched upon."
Observers have said China's top priority is to have the North Koreans agree to a new fixed date for six-country talks on their nuclear ambitions, but so far that endeavor appears to have been unsuccessful.
"As for the time of the next round of six-party talks, it's still up to further discussion carried out by the different parties in an extensive way," said Zhang.
Kim met Monday with his Chinese counterpart Wu Bangguo, who had stressed Beijing's eagerness for the resumption of the talks involving China, the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia.
Kim had merely stated that the situation remained "complicated" and reiterated North Korea's willingness to continue to "seek peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue through dialogue."
China has hosted three rounds of largely unproductive six-nation talks on the nuclear weapons issue over the past 14 months, and is now apparently involved in an all-out diplomatic effort to salvage the negotiations.
Chinese state media tried Tuesday to put a positive spin on Kim's remarks in his talks with Wu, as the mass-circulation English-language China Daily claimed on its front page that "Kim says his nation seeks peace in peninsula."
Analysts, however, saw more of the North Korean stalling tactics that have marred negotiations for the past months.
"The North Korean government is very good at these delays," said Joseph Cheng, a political scientist at the City University of Hong Kong. "They use procrastination to get the best deal possible."
Kim is accompanied on his three-day trip by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong-Il, who previously headed the North Korean delegation at the six-nation talks, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
His visit to China comes just days before US Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to arrive in Beijing as part of an Asia tour.
"We have a significant and comprehensive proposal on the table,"State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday at a regular briefing in Washington.
"And North Korea needs not only to come back to talks but to be ready to deal with that proposal," he said.
Earlier Tuesday, nuclear talks appeared to be off Kim's agenda, as he visited the Hancunhe village, an hour's drive outside of the Chinese capital.
The village, which reportedly was also visited by North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-Il during a China trip in April, has become famous throughout the nation for its success in turning poor farmers into wealthy entrepreneurs.
The visit, along with Kim Yong-Nam's stop at a science park in north Beijing Monday, suggests that from Pyongyang's perspective the trip is as much about emulating China's successful reforms as it is about nuclear issues.