UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday the stalemate over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme cannot be allowed to continue and China is crucial to the success of talks trying to bring it to a close.
In a speech to students at the elite Peking University, Annan said he spent a good deal of time talking to Chinese leaders about the nuclear crises in Iran and North Korea and the importance of nuclear non-proliferation. "As host of the six-party talks on the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, China has played a crucial role," he said.
"China's ongoing leadership will be essential to ensure that multilateral diplomatic efforts result in a peninsula free from nuclear weapons. We cannot allow the current stalemate to continue."
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun would visit China next week on the heels of the US negotiator as multilateral efforts to rein in Pyongyang's nuclear programme gather pace.
Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Paek would meet his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing, and other leaders during his May 30-June 6 visit and travel to the southern city of Guangzhou.
Christopher Hill, the US envoy to the nuclear talks which group the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, is due in China late on Wednesday and will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, before travelling to Seoul.
The delegations agreed in principle last September that Pyongyang would dismantle its nuclear programmes in exchange for aid, security assurances and improved diplomatic ties. But their last session, in November, ended without progress and North Korea has refused to take part ever since.
China, which has veto power as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has also been at the centre of diplomatic efforts to convince Iran to stop its nuclear research, which Western powers believe is aimed at making weapons.
China and Russia have resisted Western efforts to impose tougher measures such as sanctions on Iran.
Annan also raised the sensitive topic of human rights, calling them a "crucial set of norms to uphold" and urging China, whose record on the subject often faces intense international scrutiny, to play a responsible role as a member of the new Human Rights Council.
"Now it is time for China and other members of the council to find ways to ensure the protection of the human rights of all people in every country in the world," he told the students. The watchdog group Human Rights in China had urged Annan to raise the issue, saying the climate for lawyers, petitioners, journalists and religious practitioners was deteriorating.
Annan also spoke about fundamentalism, asking what he called the silent majority to stand up and be counted.
Annan arrived in Beijing on Friday on the third leg of an Asian tour which took in South Korea and Japan.
He said the three Northeast Asian powers, whose ties have been strained over issues stemming from Japan's World War Two occupation of the Korean peninsula and parts of China, could improve relations by working together in areas such as environmental protection. Annan left China on Tuesday for stops in Vietnam and Thailand.