China is North Korea's sole major ally and key trade partner.

(FILE PHOTO)Seoul: Chinese President Xi Jinping offered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un firm backing in deadlocked nuclear talks with United States, insisting two sides should meet "halfway", state media said Thursday.Kim visited Beijing by train this week for two days of talks that reasserted China's role in process, and were seen as a strategy session ahead of a second summit between North Korean leader and US President Donald Trump.At their first meeting in Singapore in June, Kim and Trump signed a vaguely worded document with Kim pledging to work towards "denuclearisation of Korean peninsula".But progress has since stalled with Pyongyang and Washington -- which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea -- disagreeing over what that means.North Korea wants relief from multiple sets of sanctions imposed on it over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, while US wants measures to remain in place until it gives up its arms -- something Pyongyang has made no public promise to do.China also wants sanctions relaxed and Xi said he "hopes that DPRK and United States will meet each other halfway" according to China's state news agency Xinhua, using initials of North's official name.Xi "spoke highly of positive measures taken by DPRK side", it added.North Korea has carried out six nuclear blasts and launched missiles capable of reaching whole of United States, but has carried out no such tests for more than a year, and blew up entrances to a nuclear testing ground it said it no longer needed.Pyongyang has rejected demands for what it calls its "unilateral" disarmament as "gangster-like".China is North's sole major ally and key trade partner but relations had deteriorated over Pyongyang's nuclear activities, before warming up last year, with Kim meeting Xi three times.Kim "raised concern" about impasse in talks with US, according to Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency, which said Chinese leader had issued a ringing endorsement of North's position."Xi Jinping said that legitimate issues raised by DPRK are rightful demands and that he fully agrees that DPRK's reasonable interests should be justly resolved," it said.Summit "imminent"Each of previous Kim-Xi meetings have come shortly before or after North Korean's summits with either Trump or South Korean President Moon Jae-in.Trump said Sunday US and North Korea were negotiating location of their next summit, a meeting Moon said Thursday was "imminent".Pyongyang needed to take "bold, practical measures for denuclearisation" to ensure sanctions are lifted, he told reporters, but added that "corresponding measures" were also needed from US, such as agreeing a "peace regime" and formally declaring an end to 1950-53 Korean War.Moon acknowledged Singapore agreement was "somewhat vague", and there was "scepticism" over Kim's denuclearisation pledge.But Kim had assured him and other leaders that his view of denuclearisation was "no different in any way from what international community demands", Moon said, and Pyongyang would not link it to presence of US forces in South or nearby.Nonetheless a commentary carried by KCNA last month stressed that when Pyongyang refers to "denuclearisation of Korean peninsula", it includes North, South, and "surrounding areas from where Korean peninsula is targeted".Birthday banquetWashington and Beijing have competing strategic interests in northeast Asia, and Xinhua said Xi had re-asserted China's importance in diplomatic process.Beijing stands ready to "play a positive and constructive role in maintaining peace and stability and realising denuclearisation on peninsula and lasting peace and stability in region", it cited him as saying.Xi greeted Kim at Beijing's ornate Great Hall of People on Tuesday -- believed to be North Korean leader's birthday -- before hosting a welcome banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju.Kim visited a pharmaceutical plant that makes traditional Chinese medicine on Wednesday and met Xi again for lunch before heading home.The visit coincided with trade talks between Chinese and US officials.

Analysts say China could use North Korean issue as a bargaining chip in negotiations, but Beijing's foreign ministry rejected any link between Kim's trip and talks.There was a "rare historic opportunity" for a political settlement on peninsula, Xi said according to Xinhua, and China "supports DPRK and United States holding summits and achieving results".(Except for headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)