KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, held out the promise of deeper international engagement for North Korea if it follows through with nuclear disarmament steps.
Peters, the highest-ranking Western visitor to the North since it conducted a nuclear test in October last year, said that aid and investment could follow.
North Korea has been isolated over its atomic ambitions but, under a multilateral agreement, its steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons programmes are to be matched with diplomatic normalisation and moves in the United States to remove the country from its terrorism blacklist.
"I left the clear impression with the North Koreans that there is an enormous community out there that I believe would back their co-operation on this issue with significant investment and aid into the Korean people," Peters told reporters in Beijing.
"I don't think we can underscore how important that is for a country that's fallen behind."
Peters made the comments after a trip to the North - the first for a New Zealand minister since the two countries established formal ties in 2001 - where he met number two leader Kim Yong-nam, and the foreign, trade and agriculture ministers.
They discussed opportunities for co-operation in training and agriculture for the North, which is so poor it cannot feed its people or afford electricity to run its factories.
"Their officials reaffirmed their full commitment in implementing current agreements. They look forward to even further steps on an action-for-action basis," Peters said. "While they said they will do what they promised, they also made it clear that this was contingent on all other six-party participants fulfilling their obligations on the agreed schedule."
He also extended an invitation for North Korean officials to visit New Zealand.
North Korea reaffirmed its commitment to a disarmament agreement reached at six-party talks that group the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China.
- REUTERS
