BEIJING, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- North Korea's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong-nam, arrived in Beijing Monday as China renewed efforts to revive six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program.
Kim, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, will meet with China's top three Communist Party members -- President Hu Jintao, the chairman of the national legislature Wu Bangguo, and Premier Wen Jiabao.
According to government-controlled media sources, "The Korean peninsula nuclear issue is expected to be one of the most important" items on the discussion agenda.
Xinhua news agency reported that China's special envoy for North Korean affairs, Ning Fukui, met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Assistant Secretary for East Asian Affairs James Kelly, and special envoy to North Korea Joseph DeTrani in Washington on Oct 15.
The six-party talks are a diplomatic effort led by China, involving North Korea, South Korea, the United States, Russia and Japan, to diffuse the crisis caused by North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
