North Korea asks China to arrange Rice visit - report

TOKYO - North Korea has asked China to arrange a visit to Pyongyang by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a Japanese newspaper said on Tuesday, quoting diplomatic sources.

The report comes at a time of heightened tension over North Korea's nuclear programme and fears that it may conduct an underground test of a nuclear device.

According to sources quoted by financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the proposal was conveyed to Rice by Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing during a telephone conversation on May 13. The report did not say what response was given by Rice.

North Korea has reservations about taking part in another round of six-party talks on its nuclear programmes and is stressing the need for bilateral talks with the United States, the paper said.

The United States has repeatedly rejected the idea of holding such talks.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry official had no comment on the report.

Three rounds of six-party talks have taken place, the last in June 2004, but a fourth round has failed to materialise.

North Korea said in February that it had nuclear weapons and said this month it had completed extracting spent fuel from a reactor, a move that could yield more material for atomic bombs.

South Korea said on Monday it is prepared to make a new and serious proposal to advance the six-party talks if Pyongyang returns to the negotiations.

Japan's Kyodo news agency said on Monday, however, that North Korea had demanded that the theme of the six-way talks be changed to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and materials rather than prevention of nuclear arms development by North Korea.
The talks include the United States, Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas.

- REUTERS