Top US diplomat in China for North Korea talks

BEIJING—Senior US diplomat Kurt Campbell will meet Chinese officials in Beijing on Tuesday to discuss North Korea after the death of Kim Jong-Il, a US embassy spokesman said.

Campbell, the assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, is the first US diplomat to visit North Korea’s closest ally since the leader of the Stalinist state died from a heart attack on December 17.

Kim’s death has sparked concerns over the stability of the isolated, nuclear-armed nation, where famine killed hundreds of thousands in the 1990s and where severe food shortages persist.

“He (Campbell) is arriving today and he is meeting with senior officials to discuss a range of important bilateral, regional, and global issues, including the latest developments related to North Korea and Burma,” a spokesman for the US embassy in Beijing told AFP, without giving further details.

China is also a key ally of Myanmar, also known as Burma, which has made tentative steps at reform by opening talks with the opposition and ethnic minorities.

But the future of North Korea is likely to dominate Campbell’s trip, which will also take him to South Korea and Japan before he returns to Washington on Saturday.

In the hours that followed the announcement of Kim’s death on December 19, China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi held telephone talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the importance of ensuring security on the Korean peninsula.

China has thrown its support behind Kim’s successor, his young son Jong-Un, as it seeks to ensure stability in the isolated nation.