NKorea Envoy to Talk With China Pres.  05/23 07:25

   BEIJING (AP) -- While a North Korean envoy waits for an expected meeting 
with China's Communist Party chief, his Chinese hosts are taking him touring in 
Beijing.

   North Korea's official Central News Agency reported that the envoy, Choe 
Ryong Hae, spent part of Thursday touring an industrial park in the southern 
part of the capital, accompanied by a Communist Party functionary.

   Choe is on the second day of a fence-mending mission to China after a 
half-year of rising frustration in Beijing at Pyongyang and its recent rocket 
and nuclear tests and other saber-rattling.

   A vice marshal in the North Korean military, Choe was sent to Beijing as a 
special envoy for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. As such, North Korea 
watchers say he is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.


(KA)