Top leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) held talks with a senior official from China over the weekend. 

Kim Yong-nam, president of the DPRK's Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, on Saturday discussed bilateral, regional and global issues with Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China.

The two sides exchanged views on bilateral relations and inter-Party contacts, as well as regional and global issues of common concern.

Kim Jong-il, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, was expected to meet Wang yesterday.

Wang, accompanied by Chinese Ambassador on Korean Peninsula Affairs Ning Fukui, arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday afternoon for a four-day official visit.

In Washington, senior officials from the United States and Japan urged the DPRK on Saturday to resume six-party talks over the nuclear issue.

The United States and Japan "share a concern" about the DPRK nuclear issue, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a news conference at the State Department after "two plus two" talks.

DPRK officials on Saturday said there was no justification now to hold bilateral talks with the United States.

"Because the United States has insisted on its hostile policy towards the DPRK and has refused to co-exist with the DPRK and persisted to switch over the DPRK's regime, the DPRK has no justification to take bilateral talks on a one-to-one basis on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula with the United States now," a spokesman from the DPRK Foreign Ministry said.

The spokesman also reiterated the DPRK's stand to suspend its participation in the six-party talks for an indefinite period declared by the Foreign Ministry on February 10, adding that "the unchanged US hostile policy towards the DPRK is the direct reason for the DPRK's statement."

(China Daily February 21, 2005)