N.Korean Media Mum on Pledge to Return to 6-Party Talks

North Korean state media proudly reported that envoy Choe Ryong-hae met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday, but omitted Choe's promise to resolve the nuclear issue or Xi's repeated calls for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

Pundits conclude that there is little hope that North Korea will return to six-party nuclear talks that ended in 2009.

North Korea revised its constitution in April 2012 and declared itself a nuclear-armed state, while the Workers Party named nuclear arms development as an official goal in March this year.

The official KCNA news agency on Friday said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a letter to Xi delivered by Choe said he wishes to uphold and develop bilateral ties between the two countries.

Xi said Beijing hopes for "sound and stable development of bilateral relations," according to Xinhua.

But he stressed that China "has a very clear position concerning the issue that all the parties involved should stick to the objective of denuclearization, safeguard the peace and stability on the peninsula, and resolve disputes through dialogue and consultation."

China was encouraged by Choe's pledge to embrace dialogue "including the six-party talks" but disappointed at the failure of the North's media to mention it.

"Judging by how Choe Ryong-hae stressed North Korea's pursuit of both nuclear weapons and its impoverished economy in tandem, you can't pin any great hopes on what he said," said a government official here.

And an informed source added, "North Korea's main priority in dispatching a special envoy was to show the North Korean public that China has not given up on the North."