NORTH KOREA: North Korea's closest allies, Russia and China, yesterday urged the country to drop its nuclear programme.
It was the highlight of a summit in Beijing between visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
A joint declaration issued after the meeting strongly backed better relations between Washington and North Korea and also urged reconciliation between North and South Korea, but made it clear the nuclear issue needed to be tackled.
It also stressed "the extreme importance of normalising relations between the United States and the DPRK [The Democratic People's Republic of Korea] on the basis of continued observation of earlier reached agreements, including the framework agreement of 1994," it said.
Analysts say China and Russia have only limited sway over North Korea and the declaration was consistent with recent policy towards their small, isolated neighbour. But the statement from its two Cold War-era "big brothers" raised diplomatic pressure on North Korea, which stunned the world in October by admitting it had a nuclear weapons programme.
Under a 1994 agreement, North Korea agreed to halt plans to develop nuclear weapons in exchange for light water nuclear reactors and fuel oil, but a visiting US official was told in October that the country had a nuclear arms programme.
Following the admission, the US and its allies, including South Korea and Japan, decided to suspend the fuel oil shipments starting from December.
Mr Putin's visit was designed to seek common ground with China's retiring and incoming leaders, especially on security issues such as North Korea, Iraq and the war on terrorism. Mr Putin chatted with Mr Jiang as they walked past an honour guard before talks in the Great Hall of the People beside Tiananmen Square. The two leaders later toasted each other with champagne.
Mr Putin also became the first major world leader to meet Vice President Hu Jintao since he replaced Jiang as head of China's Communist Party last month. Mr Hu is due to succeed Mr Jiang as head of state at a parliament meeting in March.
Both countries are permanent members of the UN Security Council, which has sent inspectors to Iraq to hunt for weapons of mass destruction.
But Moscow and Beijing have stressed the importance of the UN in authorising further action against Baghdad.
The joint declaration said the Iraq question should be resolved by political and diplomatic means and "on the basis of rigorous observance of the resolutions of the Security Council".