Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao defended six-party talks proposed by Beijing as the way to defuse volatile divisions on the Korean peninsula, even as China hosted North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, blamed by Japan and South Korea for inflaming regional tensions.
Wen made the comments at a summit meant to highlight harmony between Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing in the wake a deadly earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March. But the North Korean leader Kim's latest trip to China, coinciding with the summit, exposed entrenched disagreements on how to handle Pyongyang.
At the trilateral meeting in Tokyo, Wen joined Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in voicing concern about North Korea's "claimed" uranium enrichment, which could give it a second pathway to making nuclear weapons. Wen also defended talks between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, stalled for more than two years, as the best way to defuse confrontation with North Korea over its nuclear weapons development, which has so far included two nuclear test blasts.
"The Chinese side has been constantly urging peace and negotiations and a restart to the six-party talks," Wen told a joint news conference. "We're convinced that only dialogue and consultations are the ultimate way forward for resolving the peninsula's problems."
Wen's comments, together with Kim Jong-il's reported surprise visit to China that began on Friday, highlighted how North Korea and its nuclear activities continue to divide the big powers of north-east Asia, even while they talk up economic co-operation and the need for more trust after a rocky 2010.
Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have long sought China's help to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.
China, however, sees North Korea as a strategic bulwark against the United States and its regional allies. In recent years, Beijing has sought to shore up relations with the North with more aid and trade and visits there by its leaders.
Neither China nor its neighbour and ally North Korea has confirmed that Kim is visiting. Both are habitually secretive about such trips. But Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak that Kim Jong-il was indeed travelling through China to study "economic development", Yonhap News reported, citing a South Korean presidential aide.
Wen said Kim's trip would "offer the opportunity to understand China's development and utilise it for North Korea's development", according to Yonhap, citing Lee's public relations aide Hong Sang-pyo.
Yonhap also reported that it appeared Kim was heading towards the scenic city of Yangzhou, near Shanghai, citing a local source as saying security had tightened around railway station there. It is also possible that Kim may visit Shanghai.
China has repeatedly called for renewed six-party talks, and Wen repeated that call. At the joint post-summit press conference in Tokyo, Wen said nothing about North Korea's nuclear build-up, but Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan voiced concerns about North Korea's uranium enrichment programme and said the three leaders agreed that some of the impetus rests with Pyongyang for making talks happen.