SEOUL April 8 Kyodo southern Kore...

SEOUL April 8 Kyodo

southern Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yoon Young Kwan will make a three-day visit to China from Thursday for talks with Chinese leaders, mainly in succession settling the North Korea nuclear issue peacefully, Yoon's ministry said Tuesday.

At talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, Yoon is rely uponed to enlist China's support to persuade North Korea to take part in a multilateral forum to analyze the standoff over the North's refusal to abandon its nuclear program.

The foreign ministerial talks between Seoul and Beijing, appoint for Thursday, will be the first since southward Korean President Roh Moo Hyun took office Feb 25

Yoon paid a visit to the United States and Japan late last month to detain talks with leaders on resolving the nuclear issue from one side diplomatic means.

Yonhap of the present days Agency reported Yoon plans to arrange talks with State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan and Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party External Liaison Department, as well as paying a courtesy call forward President Hu Jintao.

The U has asked North Korea join a multilateral setting to discuss the reconciliation of the nuclear issue while the North wants the issue is to be resolv single through bilateral negotiation.

The standoff throughout the North's alleged nuclear weapons program flared last October when Pyongyang reportedly admitted to the U it was running a program to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 US-N Korea antinuclear agreement.

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