SEOUL, Oct 19: China tightened the screw on North Korea in a rare direct message on Thursday to reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned his nation not to carry out a second atom bomb test.

A special envoy handed a personal message from Chinese President Hu Jintao to Mr Kim in what a foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing called a ‘significant’ visit to Pyongyang.

It came as Dr Rice, in Seoul, warned of ‘grave consequences’ if Pyongyang conducted a second weapons test after its shock first Oct 9 trial while also stressing that the door to negotiations remained open.

Tang Jiaxuan, leading a delegation of senior Chinese government officials, carried a message from Hu, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

“This is a very significant visit against the backdrop of major changes in the situation on the Korean peninsula,” Mr Liu said.

It is thought to be Kim’s first announced meeting with any foreigner since the test.

North Korea’s state news agency KCNA, for its part, said Tang handed Kim a gift as they talked of bilateral ties “and a series of international issues of mutual concern.”

“Kim Jong-Il expressed thanks for this and conversed with him in a friendly atmosphere,” KCNA added.

Liu said two vice foreign ministers — Wu Dawei, who is also China’s senior negotiator to stalled six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, and Dai Bingguo — were also part of the delegation.

Asked by reporters in Seoul, Rice said she had not heard what came out of the meeting in Pyongyang.

“I hope it has been successful in conveying to North Korea that there is really only one path,” she said, referring to the dismantling of its weapons programmes.

A senior US official travelling with Rice earlier Thursday said the Chinese delegation would likely send a “very strong” warning against further tests.

Tang last week met with US President George W. Bush in Washington and also visited Moscow amid the hurried diplomacy that led to Saturday’s unanimous UN Security Council resolution imposing sanctions.

The UN text calls on North Korea to return to negotiations over its nuclear programme and imposes a range of financial, trade and military restrictions.

Dr Rice, who earlier held talks in Japan, arrived in Seoul as part of the US drive to tighten the pressure on Kim’s isolated and impoverished regime.

She will travel to China on Friday and then on to Russia the next day.—AFP