France's NKorea envoy heads to Pyongyang

BEIJING (AFP) – France's special envoy on North Korea, Jack Lang, left China for Pyongyang on Monday on a five-day mission expected to include talks on the North's disputed nuclear programme, French diplomats said.

Lang told AFP last week he hoped to "start a dialogue" with the reclusive state's leaders, adding that Pyongyang's nuclear drive and the establishment of French diplomatic ties with North Korea would be on the agenda.

France is the only major European country not to have diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.

Lang, a former Socialist culture minister, refused to comment directly when asked if talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il were on the cards. Diplomatic sources said Monday such a meeting had still not been confirmed.

"We're going to Pyongyang on Monday with a willingness to start a dialogue... one that is as wide-ranging as possible... with the top leaders," Lang told AFP in an interview shortly after his arrival in Beijing.

He qualified the trip as a "fact-finding mission to gather information, and impressions." Lang was due to return to China on Friday.

France is not part of six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, which bring together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

But it is one of five veto-wielding permanent UN Security Council members and Lang said Paris could "play a certain role" in international efforts to resolve the standoff.

Lang has already discussed North Korea's nuclear programme with senior US, Japanese and South Korean officials. In Beijing, he met with Chinese officials and Korea experts, including State Councillor Dai Bingguo on Monday.

The North quit the six-party talks in April after the United Nations censured its long-range rocket launch. It conducted an atomic weapons test in May, the second since 2006.

Pyongyang has said it is ready to return to the multilateral forum but only if it is first granted bilateral talks with Washington. The US said Friday it was open to sending an envoy to the North, but insisted that Pyongyang prove it is serious about giving up its nuclear ambitions.