Rice

BEIJING (Reuters):

North Korea told a Chinese envoy it planned to conduct no further nuclear tests, South Korean media reported yesterday, raising hopes that China's diplomacy might force its neighbour back to talks.

Japan's Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm nor deny the report, which came as United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Beijing to rally support for United Nations sanctions against North Korea, passed after it tested a nuclear device on October 9.

Highlighting North Korea's stance that it needs a nuclear deterrent, more than 100,000 people rallied yesterday in the main square of Pyongyang to hail the nuclear test.

"The nuclear test was an exercise of the independent and legitimate right of the DPRK as a sovereign state," the North's official KCNA quoted Choe Thae-bok, a senior member of the Workers' Party of Korea, as saying.

But the Yonhap report reinforced the optimism of China's envoy over the prospects of bringing Pyongyang back into line since the nuclear test, which brought worldwide condemnation and economic and weapons sanctions.

"I understand he expressed clearly there was no plan to conduct nuclear tests," Yonhap quoted the source as saying.

China, a traditional ally of North Korea, is seen as having the greatest potential leverage over its reclusive neighbour, but it also fears instability and a potential wave of refugees should the sanctions against it cause the North to collapse.

President Hu Jintao sent a team of diplomats led by State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan to Pyongyang earlier this week as speculation mounted that communist North Korea might be about to detonate a second nuclear device.

"Fortunately, my visit this time has not been in vain," Tang said at the opening of his meeting with Rice in Beijing.

Rice, who is making a crisis trip to east Asia, said Tang had sent a "strong message" to the North Koreans, and made clear to them that Beijing would fully implement the U.N. sanctions.