Foreign Minister Kim to visit China next week

By Kim Young-jin

Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan will visit China on March 28 for talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.

His visit comes amid differences over how to respond to North Korea’s uranium enrichment program (UEP).

Kim will also pay a courtesy call on Premier Wen Jiabao, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement.

The minister-level talks are expected to focus on the enrichment program, which was revealed to a U.S. scientist last year. Experts

fear the enrichment plant could be upgraded to produce weapons-grade uranium.

Seoul and Washington are pushing for the U.N. Security Council to adopt a presidential statement outlining the program’s illicit nature, in a bid to debunk claims by Pyongyang that it is only for peaceful purposes.

Beijing, the North’s primary ally, is holding firm that the issue should be addressed in the six-party denuclearization forum that also includes Russia and Japan.

The stance was highlighted Tuesday by Beijing’s assistant foreign minister Hu Zhengyue, who was quoted as saying the U.S. and China still “officially do not know of the program” and that all that is known of it is “what one expert saw from a distance.”

The six-party talks have been shelved since 2009 when the North walked away in response to international sanctions over its nuclear and missile tests.

China called urgently for their resumption in November, as tension soared in the wake of the North’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island that killed four. But Seoul maintains that Pyongyang must accept responsibility for the attack, as well as its sinking of the warship Cheonan eight months earlier, before the forum can restart.

The sides could face an uphill battle in addressing the enrichment program, as the two ministers failed to narrow the gap last week when they met in Japan during a three-way meeting of foreign ministers.