January 24, 2009	Saturday	Muharram 26, 1430

BEIJING / SEOUL, Jan 23: North Korea is committed to removing nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula and wants to co-exist peacefully, leader Kim Jong-il said on Friday in his first meeting with a foreign envoy since his suspected stroke in August.

China’s state Xinhua news agency said Kim made the comments during a visit to Pyongyang by a senior Chinese official.

Analysts have said a meeting with a foreign visitor would offer evidence that Kim, who US and South Korean officials said fell seriously ill in August, was well enough to run Asia’s only communist dynasty and make decisions about its nuclear programme.

“The North Korean side will commit itself to the denuclearisation of the North Korean peninsula, and hopes to co-exist peacefully with other involved parties,” Xinhua news agency quoted Kim as saying.

“North Korea is not willing to see tensions emerge in the peninsula, and is willing to strengthen consultation and cooperation with China to push forward the six-party talks,” Kim added, referring to multilateral talks aimed at having destitute North Korea scrap its nuclear programme in return for aid.

Xinhua and the North’s KCNA news agency said Kim met Wang Jiarui, visiting head of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, on Friday.

His comments came after the North hinted in a New Year’s message that it was willing to work with new US President Barack Obama by saying it wanted good relations with countries that treated it in an amicable manner.—Reuters