North Korea told a Chinese envoy it planned to conduct no further nuclear tests, South Korean media reported on Friday, raising hopes that China's diplomacy might force its neighbour back to talks.
Japan's Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm or deny the report, which came as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Beijing to rally support for UN sanctions against North Korea, passed after it tested a nuclear device on October 9.
Highlighting North Korea's stance that it needs a nuclear deterrent, more than 100,000 people rallied on Friday in the main square of Pyongyang to hail the nuclear test. "The nuclear test was an exercise of the independent and legitimate right of the DPRK as a sovereign state," the North's official KCNA quoted Choe Thae-bok, a senior member of the Workers' Party of Korea, as saying.
But the Yonhap report reinforced the optimism of China's envoy over the prospects of bringing Pyongyang back into line since the nuclear test, which brought world-wide condemnation and economic and weapons sanctions.
"I understand he expressed clearly there was no plan to conduct nuclear tests," Yonhap quoted the source as saying. China, a traditional ally of North Korea, is seen as having the greatest potential leverage over its reclusive neighbour, but it also fears instability and a potential wave of refugees should the sanctions against it cause the North to collapse.
President Hu Jintao sent a team of diplomats led by State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan to Pyongyang earlier this week as speculation mounted that communist North Korea might be about to detonate a second nuclear device. "Fortunately, my visit this time has not been in vain," Tang said at the opening of his meeting with Rice in Beijing.
Rice, who is making a crisis trip to east Asia, said Tang had sent a "strong message" to the North Koreans, and made clear to them that Beijing would fully implement the UN sanctions. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said Tang and the North Koreans also discussed how to kick-start stalled talks on the North's nuclear programmes, but Rice indicated that Washington and Pyongyang were still poles apart on how to get back to the negotiating table.
"At least it increased mutual understanding. Everyone discussed how to restart progress in the six-party talks as quickly as possible," Li told reporters. The talks, which bring together the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China, stalled last November after Washington imposed restrictions on Pyongyang's external financing.
China's Xinhua news agency quoted Tang as saying the United States should take a more flexible attitude when dealing with North Korea, but Rice said the financial sanctions would remain. "The financial measures are a legal process which has to do with counterfeiting money. The (US) president has made very clear at every turn that he is going to defend the US currency," she said. At a joint briefing after talks with Rice, Li appealed for calm and a diplomatic solution to the crisis over the test, which Rice called "a serious provocation".
"We talked about the importance of the full implementation of (UN resolution) 1718 so we can make certain there is not a transit and trade in illegal materials, dangerous illegal materials, concerning the nuclear programme of the DPRK," she said referring to North Korea by its official acronym.
Rice said China made clear that it would be "scrupulous" about inspections on the land border with North Korea, despite worries in Beijing about the consequences should its impoverished neighbour collapse.
"You will see co-operation on cargo, particularly if there is suspicious cargo," said Rice when asked what the Chinese were prepared to do. But Premier Wen Jiabao also reiterated Beijing's view that negotiations were preferable to strong-arm tactics. "It's in the interest of all parties to resolve the Korean nuclear issue through diplomacy and dialogue. Apart from that, I can see no other choice," he said.
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