French envoy Jack Lang arrives in Pyongyang

Latest update : 2009-11-09

Jack Lang, a former minister and France's special envoy to North Korea, has arrived in Pyongyang on a five-day mission to "start a dialogue" with North Korean leaders and discuss the country's nuclear programme.

AFP - France's special envoy on North Korea, Jack Lang, arrived in Pyongyang on Monday, state media reported, on a five-day mission expected to include talks on the North's disputed nuclear programme.

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 formal relations with Pyongyang.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced the arrival of Lang, a former Socialist culture minister who has also served as French President Nicolas Sarkozy's special envoy to Cuba, in a brief report.

Lang refused to comment directly when asked if talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il were on the cards. French 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 hosted by China 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.