Kim Yong Nam, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), will pay an official visit to China today.

He will meet President Hu Jintao, top legislator Wu Bangguo, Premier Wen Jiabao and others to discuss diplomatic relations and areas of common concern. The most important of these is expected to be nuclear proliferation on the Korean peninsula.

Kim's arrival will precede a visit by US Secretary of State Colin Powell to Japan, China and Republic of Korea (ROK) that begins on October 22.

The DPRK nuclear issue and the six-party talks are expected to top the list of priorities of Powell's three-nation tour after the fourth round of talks reached a deadlock last month.

On Friday Ning Fukui, China's Special Envoy for DPRK Affairs, met with US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, the Assistant Secretary for East Asian Affairs James Kelly and US Special Envoy to the DPRK Joseph DeTrani.

The US told the meeting that they are still committed to the six-party process and “remain prepared to go [back to the table] at an early date," said US Secretary of State spokesman Richard Boucher.

Ning also paid a visit to the ROK and Japan for discussions on the same issue before arriving in the US. "Ning's visit to the countries involved is part of China's efforts to promote a solution to the nuclear issue of the Korean peninsula through dialogue," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said earlier last week.

The US, China, Japan, Russia, ROK and DPRK are all involved in talks aimed at realizing the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Three rounds of the six-party talks, hosted by China, have so far been held to try to resolve the stalemate between the United States and DPRK.

(China Daily October 18, 2004)