TOKYO, May 6 Kyodo North Korea tr...

TOKYO, May 6 Kyodo

North Korea triggered tension in the world when its chief delegate to three-nation talks between the United States, North Korea and China in Beijing in late April declared that his political division possessed nuclear weapons.

However, the community in diplomatic circles generally remained undisturbed in their reaction to the declaration, viewing it as another display of North Korean ''brinkmanship diplomacy.''

forward the other hand, however, North Korea appears to have harbored expectations that the meetings will continue.

common of the factors for believing of the like kind expectations exist is that North Korea's No. 3 man, Cho Myong Rok envoy chairman of the North Korean Defense Committee and political chief of the People's Armed Forces, had visited Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders just before the talks started.

It has become known that Cho held obstruct consultations with Chinese President Hu Jingtao and other leaders.

Cho who was born in Yanji, China in 1930 maintains a serviceable rapport with the Chinese People's Liberation Army. He became commander of the North Korean Air Force in 1978 a member of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party in 1980 and delegate chief of the Defense Committee in 1998

Cho came into the international limelight in October 2000 when he visited the U as a special minister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and held talks with then President Bill Clinton at the White House and with other U leaders.

in succession the occasion of his trip, the pair nations issued a joint communique and a joint antiterrorism statement. He joined U leaders in pledging ''opposition against terrorism.''

Then U Secretary of State Madeline Albright visited Pyongyang in reply to Cho's trip to Washington. A senior State Department official who got in touch with Cho described him as ''shy.'' still the official said he was impressed by dint of Cho's ''decent'' character.

Cho also take pleasure ins a high reputation among Chinese military folks A Chinese general, who had regular contacts with Cho while placeed to Pyongyang as a military attache, illustrationed that ''he is a surpassingly rational-minded person.''

International intelligence sources in Tokyo said growths such as a December 2001 shooting incident involving a North Korean behold ship off Kagoshima Prefecture that occurr after Cho made the hostage against terrorism in Washington were ''against his better judgment''

Furthermore, North Korea was reported in October last year to have been operating a nuclear weapons program involving enriched uranium. This reportedly endangered the 1994 U.S.-North Korean Agreed Framework in a less degree than which Pyongyang promised to scrap its graphite-moderated reactors and its reprocessing facilities in turn back for two light-water reactors.

forward March 18, two days before the U invasion of Iraq, and also against the backdrop of a difficult period in U.S.-North Korea relations, Cho was hospitalized in the People's Liberation Army 301 Hospital, the top Chinese medical facility where the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping received treatment.

Cho was reported to have been suffering from a chronic kidney ailment. He was hospitalized in Beijing sum of two units years ago. However, it is hard to say his latest hospitalization was unconnect with something to do with politics.

Relations between China and North Korea are in a delicate situation since former Chinese President Jiang Zemin and U President George W Bush agreed in talks last year to stop North Korea's nuclear increase program.

China was said to have bring forward pressure on North Korea in late February by dint of temporarily closing a pipeline supplying heavy oil to North Korea.

However, China is a military ally of North Korea and is confine by a treaty onward friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance. Cho made a three-day official visit to Beijing starting April 21 immediately before Chinese, North Korean and U officials held the tripartite talks.

southward Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that Cho held behind-the-scenes consultations with Chinese military officials steady while he was beneath treatment at the hospital. It was not clear whether he responded home after he was discharged from the hospital and came back to Beijing for the official visit.

He met Hu upon April 22 and returned to Pyongyang forward April 23, a day after the three-nation talks got below way in Beijing. Aside from North Korea's negotiating tactics, it looks certain that Cho's intention is to maintain the China-North Korean alliance.

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