http://www.boston.com/dailynews/247/world/China_offers_food_urges_North_:.shtml

China offers food, urges North Korea to open ties with Washington

By John Leicester, Associated Press, 9/4/2001 04:28

BEIJING (AP) Chinese President Jiang Zemin, on a visit to North Korea, has encouraged it to open ties with the United States and offered food aid for its starving people, Chinese state media said.

Jiang was greeted on arrival Monday by near-hysterical flower-waving crowds and received a bear hug from North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

On Tuesday, Jiang met the communist nation's No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam. Chinese media gave no immediate details of the talks.

Jiang appeared to be using China's influence as North Korea's only major ally to prod it out of self-imposed isolation. This is Jiang's first trip to the North in 11 years.

In talks Monday with Kim Jong Il, Jiang appealed for new North-South dialogue, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

He also encouraged Kim to improve relations with the United States, Japan and Europe and eventually open formal ties, Xinhua said.

Talks between the rival Koreas, divided since the end of World War II, have stalled since March, though the North issued a surprise invitation Sunday to restart them.

Efforts by the North and Washington to end five decades of enmity also halted after President Bush took office in January.

But relations with Beijing have warmed since China infuriated the North by opening diplomatic ties with South Korea in 1992.

Jiang's three-day visit is the first by a Chinese head of state since Beijing and Seoul opened ties in Aug. 1992. It reciprocates two recent trips to China by Kim Jong Il.

''The flower of friendship planted and watered by the Chinese and Korean leaders of the old generation has blossomed with bright colors,'' Jiang said at a banquet Monday hosted by Kim, according to Xinhua.

China sided with North Korea against U.S.-led forces in the 1950-53 Korean War.

But over the past two decades, the two allies have taken very different paths.

While China has pursued capitalist-style reforms and foreign investment, North Korea's isolated, state-controlled economy has crumbled. Famine has killed as many as 2 million North Koreans since the mid-1990s and left the nation reliant on outside aid.

The differences were evident at Monday's talks between Kim and Jiang. The Chinese president wore a Western suit and tie, while Kim wore a gray tunic favored by communist leaders of old.

The assistance Jiang offered to Kim included grain, Xinhua said.

It said they also reached a ''wide-reaching consensus'' on international and regional issues, but gave no details.

-- Anonymous, September 04, 2001