North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Chinese President Hu Jintao that his country remained committed to denuclearization and hoped to resume six-nation talks on ending its nuclear weapons programme "at an early date," Chinese state media reported Thursday, according to dpa. Kim told Hu Wednesday that North Korea "hopes to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, sticks to the objective of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and believes that the six-party talks should be resumed at an early date", the official Xinhua news agency reported. The stalled six-nation talks, which began in 2003, involve North Korea, the United States, China, South Korea, Russia and Japan. Kim praised China for "pushing for the resumption of the six-party talks and safeguarding peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," the report said. He said North Korea also "sincerely hopes" to improve relations with South Korea. Kim's secretive seven-day trip to China ended Thursday and included visits to high technology factories in several cities.
