Kim Jong-il Visits Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang: Report

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang Saturday amid efforts to restart the stalled six-party talks on denuclearizing the North, the communist state's official news media said.

"Kim Jong-il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission, visited the Chinese embassy here at the request of Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Liu Xiaoming on Saturday," the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

Kim had a "cordial and friendly talk" with the ambassador and attended a banquet given by the embassy, the KCNA said. Kim watched an art performance and posed for a photograph together with all staff members of the embassy and the Chinese artists who performed, it added.

Kim's visit came as the five nations negotiating with North Korea are making efforts to break the two-month impasse in the talks. Under a six-party deal reached last year, the North agreed to disable its key nuclear facilities and give a full account of its nuclear programs by the end of 2007 in return for energy aid and political concessions. Washington insists North Korea missed the deadline and Pyongyang claims it provided a full list in November.

Pyongyang accused Washington of slowing the denuclearization process by failing to take North Korea off the U.S. list of terrorism-sponsoring states and remove economic sanctions. China, a long-time ally of North Korea, serves as a mediator between the two key players -- the U.S. and the North -- in the six-party talks. The three other nations in the negotiations are Russia, Japan and South Korea.

The U.S. envoy to the nuclear talks Christopher Hill returned to Beijing Saturday to discuss how to break the impasse. But U.S. officials said he would not meet with his North Korean counterpart this time. (Yonhap)