North's Kim will visit China by the year's end

BEIJING -- The North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is expected to visit Beijing at the end of the year and meet President Jiang Zemin of China, the BBC reported on its Chinese-language Internet site on Wednesday.

Quoting China's state-run Xinhua News Agency, the British news company said a senior Chinese official, Dai Bingguo, head of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, had spoken of the visit at a reception held Wednesday at North Korea's embassy in Beijing to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Mr. Kim's inauguration as the general secretary of the North Korean Workers Party.

Mr. Kim was invited to visit China during the Chinese president's visit to Pyeongyang last year. China has said it would welcome Mr. Kim at any time.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry, however, said Thursday that nothing has been confirmed about the visit.

In another report, a North Korean diplomat ruled out the possibility of high-level talks between North Korea and the United States in the near future, Japan's Kyodo News said Wednesday.

Asked in a phone interview about the possibility of near-term talks, Han Song-ryol, North Korea's deputy representative to the United Nations, replied "No, I don't think so," Kyodo reported.

Mr. Han also said that the U.S. envoy James Kelly's talks with North Korean officials last week ended in a virtual stalemate, Kyodo said. North Korea has described Mr. Kelly's stance as "high-handed and arrogant."

by Yoo Kwang-jong