China grows the talks on the Korea of the North as Kim visits

TOKYO (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao defended the six-party talks proposed by Beijing as a way to defuse the divisions volatile on the Korean peninsula, even though China has allowed North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, blamed by the Japan and South Korea for fueling regional tensions.

Wen made the comments at a Summit intended to highlight the harmony between Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing in the wake a deadly earthquake and the tsunami that struck the Japan in March. But travel last leader North Korea's Kim in China, coinciding with the Summit, exposed severed disagreements on how to handle Pyongyang.

At the trilateral meeting in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan joined Wen and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, expressing the concern of "claimed" North Korea uranium enrichment, which could give him a second way to make nuclear weapons.

Wen also defends the talks between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and United States, at a standstill for more than two years, as the best way to defuse the confrontation with the Korea of the North in its development of nuclear weaponswhich has included two nuclear test explosions.

"The Chinese side has been constantly urging peace and negotiations and a reboot for the talks to six," Wen said at a joint press conference. "We are convinced that only dialogue and consultation are the final steps to solve the problems of the peninsula."

Comments by Wen, with surprise visit reported Kim Jong-il in China which began Friday, emphasized how the North Korea and its nuclear activities continue to divide the great powers of the North-East Asia, even while they talk about economic cooperation and the need to place greater confidence after a rocky 2010.

Washington, Tokyo and Seoul had long sought China's help in persuading the North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

China, however, sees the North Korea as a strategic bulwark against the United States and their regional allies. In recent years, Beijing has sought to strengthen relations with the North with aid and trade and visits it by its leaders.

China nor its neighbor and ally the Northern Korea confirmed that Kim is visiting. Both are usually secretive trips.

But Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Sunday, said South Korean President Lee Myung-bak Kim Jong-il travelled from China to study "economic development", Yonhap News reported, quoting a South Korean Presidential aid.

Said Wen travel Kim "would offer the opportunity to understand the development of China and to use it for the development of the Korea of the North," according to Yonhap, citing assistance of public relations, blood-pyo Hong Lee.

Yonhap also said that it appeared that Kim headed towards the picturesque city of Yangzhou, near Shanghai, quoting a local source said security was tightened around railway station. It is also possible that Kim may visit to Shanghai.

TALKS MORE?

China has called several times for renewed talks at six, and Wen reiterated this call.

But Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have been lukewarm to such negotiations, concerned that they could be seen as rewarding Pyongyang for its deadly attack on an island in Korea South, towards the end of last year.

At the post-Summit joint Tokyo press conference, Wen said nothing on the nuclear accumulation of the Korea of the North, but Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has expressed concerns about uranium enrichment program North Korea and said that three leaders agreed that some of the pulse is in Pyongyang to make the talks to occur.

"We reiterated that the three countries would work together to try to Korea North to take specific measures to resolve questions of interest," Kan said.

"We have agreed that the resumption of six-party talks, it must first be an attitude turned towards the future of the Korea of the North in dialogue between the North and the South Korea.".

Kurt Campbell, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State for Asia and Pacific Affairs, told reporters in Tokyo that he had no information on Kim's visit to China, but China have urges North to engage with the South and other countries.

"It is clear that we value the role of China in terms of engaging in the Korea of the North and we ask them to take a clear position on the North Korea encouraging to engage responsibly with the Korea of the South and the international community."He said.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said early Kan and Wen had discussed travel of Kim Jong-il, effectively confirming his current visit to only one ally of Pyongyang.

Tension on the Korean peninsula rose to its highest level since the Korea in 1950-53 war last year, after the sinking of a ship in the South killed 46 sailors, an exchange of artillery around the South Islandrevelations of new nuclear by Northern activity and threats of war.

Wen told journalists after the Summit that three leaders were "happy to see some easing of the situation on the Korean peninsula", but which persisted many uncertainties.