Secretive North Korea's No 2 leader visits Mongolia

BEIJING (Reuters) - Secretive North Korea's No.2 leader arrived in resource-rich Mongolia on Friday, as talks on how to end his country's nuclear weapons programme wrapped up in Beijing.

Kim Yong-nam is due visit Algeria and Ethiopia, North Korea's state media reported. It did not give details.

Mongolia, a former Soviet satellite, unusually has diplomatic relations with both energy-starved Communist North Korea and fervidly capitalist South Korea -- technically still at war after the cessation of their civil war in 1953.

North Korea recently agreed to allow rail travel from South Korea into North Korea and proceed through Mongolia to Russia and Europe. North Korea may also be interested in discussing joint mining projects in Mongolia.

Kim, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, aims to "pay official goodwill visits" to the three countries, the North's KCNA news agency said.

Kim is the first high-ranking North Korean official to visit Mongolia since 1988.

Mongolia, where nearly half of the 2.5 million population are nomadic herders, overthrew decades of Soviet dominance in 1991.

Sandwiched between China and Russia, Mongolia punches above its weight diplomatically, as its giant neighbors covet its gold and other mineral resources and the United States courts it as a beacon of democracy in central Asia.

Multi-party talks on how to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programme wound up on Friday in Beijing without setting any deadline, with the focus now turning to technical details and working groups before new negotiations in September. The talks have dragged on for years.

Delegates from the two Koreas, United States, Japan, Russia and China met for three days in Beijing and the chief U.S. envoy said he still hoped a second disarmament phase could be completed this year.

North Korea quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty early in 2003 after throwing out U.N. nuclear inspectors, becoming a focus of international concern about nuclear weapons along with Iran and Iraq.