China and North Korea have said they are committed to resuming international negotiations on dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons, but South Korea is unlikely to agree to any such talks while suspecting that the North torpedoed one of its warships.

Both Chinese and North Korean state media on Friday gave accounts of Kim Jong-il’s secretive trip to China earlier this week.
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[Mr] Kim said the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will work with China to create favorable conditions for restarting six-party talks,” China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
Such statements are common. China’s premier, Wen Jiabao, visited Pyongyang in October and won a commitment to restart six-party nuclear talks but no progress was made. The six-party nations are the U.S., China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas.
Rightwing politicians in South Korea have expressed anger at the welcome that China extended to Mr Kim. Leftwingers have retorted that nuclear talks should take priority, outweighing the investigation into the sinking of the Cheonan warship.
An international investigation into whether Mr Kim ordered the sinking of a 104-man South Korean corvette on March 26 poses a moral dilemma for South Korea’s ally, the US which has been pushing for new talks.
North Korea’s KCNA news agency portrayed the visit more as an opportunity for Mr Kim to deepen commercial ties with China, the reclusive state’s effective life support. The North Korean economy has shown signs of unravelling after a bungled currency re-denomination at the end of last year, which compounded chronic food shortages.
Mr Kim visited a train-building factory, a fishery and a factory, KCNA said, suggesting he was looking for Chinese investment to prop up his crumbling infrastructure. KCNA praised the Chinese ports of Dalian and Tianjin, the later as a model of “vim and vigor”.
North Korea is seeking to develop the port of Rajin in the north-east with help from China, which wants to gain port access on the Sea of Japan.
Mr Kim was reported to be back in Pyongyang on Friday. (Source: The Financial Times)