N.Korea's Kim says will stick to disarmament deal

BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea is committed to a nuclear disarmament pact and disagreements stalling its progress can be overcome, reclusive leader Kim Jong-il told a Chinese official, Chinese state media said on Thursday.

Moving to denuclearize North Korea, whose October 2006 nuclear test alarmed the United States and its regional allies South Korea and Japan, is a priority for U.S. President George W. Bush in his last year in office.

Kim met the head of the Chinese Communist Party's international liaison department, Wang Jiarui, on Wednesday and received a message from Chinese President Hu Jintao, Xinhua news agency said.

Wang used the rare meeting to press North Korea and other countries to push forward a stalled six-country disarmament deal that had set an end-2007 deadline for the North to fully list its nuclear activities.

Kim responded that his country remained committed to the deal, which offers the North energy and aid as well as improved diplomatic standing in return for the initial disarmament steps.

"The DPRK side's stance of advancing the six-party talks and implementing the various agreements jointly reached has not changed," Kim said, according to the Xinhua report in Chinese.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the North's official name. "The difficulties that have currently arisen are temporary and can be surmounted," Kim added.

North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia reached the disarmament deal last year, setting the year-end deadline in October.

The North began taking apart its Yongbyon nuclear plant in November as part of the deal but missed the end-2007 deadline to release a list of its fissile material and nuclear weapons.

Wang's meeting with Kim came before U.S. diplomat Sung Kim heads to Pyongyang on Thursday to try to push the deal forward.

Kim indicated that he wanted the other parties to do more in implementing the agreement, but the report did not spell out specific demands.

"As long as all the parties follow the principle of action-for-action and conscientiously adhere to their promises, the talks can overcome obstructions and constantly advance," he told Wang.

If North Korea makes an acceptable nuclear declaration, the United States is expected to ease trade restrictions on the impoverished state. It would also move to take North Korea off a blacklist of states that sponsor terrorism.

China's Communist Party has long had close but sometimes volatile ties with its hardline Communist neighbor, and officials are often keen to stress they want to keep healthy ties with the North.

Wang was no exception. He passed on "warm greetings" from President Hu. China wanted to "constantly push neighborly and friendly cooperative relations between China and the DPRK to a new stage", he told Kim.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie)