A delegation from China's Communist Party left yesterday for a visit to North Korea, the government said, amid Chinese efforts to restart six-nation talks over the North's nuclear program.
The trip is just days before China's No. 2 leader is due to visit Pyongyang, probably accompanied by China's top diplomat for the nuclear issue.
The flurry of contacts comes as Beijing is trying to organize more talks aimed at ending tensions between Pyongyang and Washington over the North's nuclear ambitions. The last talks ended in August without a settlement or a date to meet again.
The Communist Party delegation is on a "goodwill visit" to the North, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It didn't give any details of the agenda or say how long the visit was to last.
The delegation is headed by Zhang Yi, the deputy party secretary of the northern province of Hebei, Xinhua said.
China's communist government is believed to be lobbying the North to resume talks, apparently anxious at the prospect of a nuclear-armed Korean peninsula or military confrontation near its borders. The talks also include the US, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
Wu Bangguo (
Beijing hasn't released any details of Wu's agenda.
But Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said this week that Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi, whose portfolio includes the nuclear issue, was also likely to go.
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