North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told his neighbour and biggest patron China on Friday that he was willing to return to stalled nuclear talks "without precondition", China's Xinhua news agency reported, according to Reuters. Kim, who made such a pledge during a visit to Russia this week, also said that he was committed to the aim of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, during talks in northeastern China with top Chinese diplomat Dai Bingguo. "The DPRK adheres to the goal of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and is ready to fully implement the Sept. 19 joint statement along with all sides for maintaining and promoting peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," Xinhua paraphrased Kim as saying. The Sept. 19 Agreement in 2005 spelled out a process in which North Korea will scrap its nuclear programmes in exchange for economic and energy aid and diplomatic relations with the United States and Japan. North Korea is "willing to resume the six-party talks without preconditions", Kim said, referring to the talks which bring together both Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the United States. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is North Korea's formal name. Moscow and Beijing have called for a quick resumption of talks. Seoul, Washington and Tokyo say they are willing to resume the talks where they left off, but that Pyongyang must first show it is serious about denuclearising. Pyongyang has also flouted past agreements over its nuclear weapons ambitions and is unlikely to give up efforts to build an atomic arsenal it sees as a bargaining tool with the outside world. The secretive Kim journeyed to China as recently as May, but his visits are usually cloaked in official secrecy until nearly over. This time, however, Xinhua has reported on the trip -- his fourth since May last year. Kim has this time visited factories and a dairy producer in northeastern China's Heilongjiang province, Xinhua said. "Every time I visited China, I can feel the friendly affections from the Chinese people to the Korean people," it quoted him as saying. China is isolated North Korea's main source of economic and diplomatic support, and Kim has been seeking help from regional powers for his isolated nation, which is struggling with economic hardship and food shortfalls. Beijing has shored up its support for Pyongyang in the past two years, despite regional tension over North Korea's actions, including nuclear weapon tests in 2006 and 2009 that drew U.N. sanctions backed by China. When Kim visited China in May, the two sides vowed that their alliance, "sealed in blood", would pass on to their successors. While in Russia, Kim also promised to consider suspending nuclear arms tests and production if international talks on Pyongyang's atomic program resume, a Kremlin spokeswoman said. The pledge, made at talks with President Dmitry Medvedev, was intended to improve the chances of reviving the six-nation aid-for-disarmament talks that collapsed when North Korea walked out of them in 2008.
