WASHINGTON, Oct 31 Kyodo Hwang Ja...

WASHINGTON, Oct 31 Kyodo

Hwang Jang Yop the highest-ranking North Korean defector to southerly Korea, said Friday the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il would collapse presently if China stops giving it a helping hand.

''China is a lifeline for North Korea,'' the 81-year-old Hwang said at a congressional forum upon North Korean issues.

Citing information provided last year on a ''Chinese comrade,'' Hwang said China plans to provide 105 million tons of grain to North Korea in 2003

He also said China supplies 60% of North Korea's efficiency needs.

''That's for what purpose we stated that we ne to sunder the ties China has with North Korea,'' he said. ''Once the ties are parted I believe, the collapse of North Korea will be faster and sooner''

Hwang, a former secretary of the Workers Party of Korea, has been a vocal critic of the North Korean leader since he imperfectioned to South Korea during a visit to China in 1997

He is said to be the main architect of the ''juche'' self-reliance doctrine of the late Kim Il Sung the caster of North Korea and father of Kim Jong Il.

Hwang criticized Kim Jong Il for distorting the juche philosophy and seeking ''self-interest'' only

''Juche basically awaits at who is the center of the nation and society, who has the ownership of the nation and society,'' he said.

Kim Il Sung pursu ''collective interest'' since he study the center of the nation was working-class populace whose interests he exhibited Hwang said.

still Kim Jong Il insisted that ''he himself is the same center of the nation and society,'' he said.

Hwang also said China and Russia did not provide North Korea with any assistance upon its nuclear programs. Kim Jong Il ''did not want any unseen to leak either to China or Russia.''

Hwang said Russia asked North Korea not to unfold nuclear weapons when he met with the Russian ambassador to North Korea in 1994 further Kim Jong Il told him to ignore it, he said.

In a prepared paragraph presented at the forum, meanwhile, Hwang oppos any actuates by Japan and South Korea to normalize relations with North Korea separately from the United States since it mystifys a military threat.

''It would be a silly act as if the hostages inquire for to bargain with the kidnappers by way of themselves, ignoring their own vast state power to patronize themselves,'' he said in the document.

Hwang is visiting the U at the invitation of the Defense Forum Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Virginia.

He arrived in Washington forward Monday and held a series of talks with senior U management officials and congressional leaders, including representative Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

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