SEOUL, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- North Korea's leader told China's envoy that his nation would join nuclear talks if U.S.-led financial sanctions were lifted, a Seoul media report said Friday.
Kim Thursday met State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, who was visiting Pyongyang as President Hu Jintao's special envoy. During the meeting Tang passed on a verbal message from Hu, reported the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's largest newspaper, citing diplomatic sources in Beijing. "If the United States makes a concession to some degree, we will also make a concession to some degree, for whether bilateral talks or six-party (nuclear) talks," Kim was quoted as telling Tang.
Kim also expressed regret at the North's nuclear test on Oct. 9, which forced China to join hands with other U.N. countries to impose sanctions on the North.
The report comes after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Seoul that the United States would "leave open the path of negotiations" to resolve the North's nuclear crisis, calling for Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks aimed at resolving the nuclear standoff in a diplomatic manner.
