SKorea PM arrives in China for NKorea nuke talks: officials

BEIJING, Dec 10, 2007 (AFP) - South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo arrived in Beijing Monday for talks with China's leaders on North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes and expanding economic ties, officials said.

Han's two-day visit will mark the 15th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

His office said Han would meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday afternoon, then President Hu Jintao on Tuesday.

Han "will explain the latest developments in inter-Korean relations, including the result of the recent inter-Korean prime ministerial talks, and ask for continued Chinese support for a peaceful settlement of the North Korean nuclear problem," an aide to Han told South Korea's Yonhap new agency.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency said Han arrived Monday morning, with his official welcome and meeting with Wen to occur late in the afternoon.

The visit comes at a crucial time in multinational efforts to scrap the North's nuclear programmes.

Last week US President George W. Bush sent a personal letter to the North's leader Kim Jong-Il, urging him fully to declare all nuclear activity.

The North carried out its first atomic test in October last year, sparking international concern.

But in February it reached a six-nation deal to disable its plutonium-producing plants and declare all nuclear programmes and facilities by year-end in return for major energy aid.

China chairs the six-nation talks which began in August 2003 and also include the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan.

The US-supervised disablement of the main plutonium-producing facilities at North Korea's Yongbyon is going well.

However South Korean and US officials say the December 31 deadline for the declaration may be missed because of disagreements over the North's suspected highly enriched uranium weapons programme.