Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping Wednesday urged North Korea and other countries to move forward six-nation talks about scrapping Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme, state media reported.
In a meeting with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang, Xi said all parties involved "should work together to implement second-phase actions and move six-party talks into a new phase," according to China's state-run central television channel.
The six-party talks — which also include the US, South Korea, Japan and Russia — have stalled since North Korea missed a deadline at the end of last year to declare all its nuclear programmes under a denuclearisation deal.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoted Kim as saying important agreements had been reached in the six-party talks, although he acknowledged the negotiations had been "tortuous" at times.
But there have been several signs of progress in recent weeks.
A South Korean nuclear envoy on Wednesday said the North agreed on the need to hold a new round of six-party talks.
And last week Japan dropped some of its sanctions against North Korea after the communist state agreed to reopen a probe into its abduction of Japanese citizens during the Cold War.
US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill is also due to travel to Japan and China this week for more bilateral talks on the nuclear issue.
Xi arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday to begin a three-day official visit to North Korea, official Chinese media said, on the first leg of a five-nation tour.
He will also visit Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Yemen.
