North Korea's ailing leader Kim Jong-Il is showing "symptoms of nervousness", South Korea's spy chief said Tuesday, amid international pressure on the communist state to return to nuclear talks.

Won Se-Hoon told an intelligence committee in parliament that Kim, 68, was suffering "a lot of anxieties regarding resolving pending issues", Yonhap news agency said.

Won, head of the National Intelligence Service, did not elaborate on the "pending issues", but North Korea is grappling food shortages, economic woes and an international standoff over its nuclear programmes.

The spy head said Kim, who suffered a stroke in August 2008, was "trying hard to appear healthy" by removing spots on his face.

The reclusive leader was "relying increasingly on his family and old friends", Won said.

Kim, whose health has been the subject of intense speculation, is widely reported to be preparing for the eventual succession of his youngest son Jong-Un.

Jong-Un has been expanding his political influence since he turned 26 on January 8, Yonhap said.

Some analysts say Pyongyang is waiting for the right opportunity to announce Jong-Un's nomination as eventual successor.

earlier related report
China encourages US-North Korea to meet
Beijing (AFP) Feb 23, 2010 - China on Tuesday urged the United States and North Korea to step up efforts to restart stalled nuclear disarmament talks, as diplomats criss-crossed the region to try to get Pyongyang back to the table.

The US and South Korean envoys to the six-party talks, which began in 2003 and have been on hold since the North stormed out 10 months ago, were both due in Beijing this week for meetings with their Chinese counterparts.

China, the host of the talks and the communist North's sole major diplomatic and economic ally, said efforts by Washington and Pyongyang would be the key to success.

"We encourage multilateral and bilateral meetings and dialogue... on this issue, China adopts a supportive and positive attitude," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

Such contact between the United States and North Korea "will be conducive to the early resumption of the six-party talks and ensure the peace and stability of northeast Asia and the Korean peninsula," he said.

Qin said US special envoy Stephen Bosworth would hold talks with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei in Beijing on Wednesday to discuss the North Korean disarmament issue.

South Korea's chief negotiator Wi Sung-Lac was also expected in Beijing Tuesday and would hold talks with Wu.

Meanwhile, a senior North Korean Communist Party official, Kim Yong-Il, held talks Tuesday with his Chinese counterpart Wang Jiarui and met President Hu Jintao, China Central Television reported.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the North Korean official was likely to deliver a letter from leader Kim Jong-Il to Hu.

On Monday, the US State Department said that Bosworth had no plans to stop in North Korea during a three-nation Asia tour, and there was no sign Pyongyang was ready to return to the six-nation disarmament forum.

"We are looking for a signal from North Korea, and we're still waiting for that signal," spokesman Philip Crowley said.

Bosworth was travelling with the US chief nuclear negotiator Sung Kim.

Media reports have said the North is sticking to its preconditions for returning to dialogue: the lifting of United Nations sanctions and a US commitment to discuss a formal peace treaty on the Korean peninsula.

The United States, South Korea and Japan say the North must first return to dialogue and show it is serious about denuclearisation before other issues are dealt with.

"The (Seoul) government maintains that discussions on a peace treaty will be possible only after we make progress in denuclearisation," Wi told reporters.

Yun Duk-Min, professor at Seoul's Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, said China was trying to narrow the gap between North Korea and the other countries, notably the United States.

"It remains to be seen how things will end up, as North Korea wants to extort as many gains as possible from others before returning to six-party talks while China plays good cop and the United States bad cop," he told AFP.

But Yun said he believes Pyongyang would come back to the talks eventually.

Under deals in 2005 and 2007 the North agreed to scrap its nuclear weapons in return for aid and major diplomatic and security benefits, including a formal peace pact.

But the talks became bogged down by disputes over ways to verify disarmament and in April last year the North quit them altogether.

Pyongyang, which tested atomic weapons in October 2006 and May 2009, says it developed nuclear weaponry because of a US threat of aggression, and it must have a peace pact before it considers giving them up.

The 1950-1953 Korean War ended only in an armistice. Seoul officials suspect talk of a peace treaty is an excuse to delay action on the nuclear programme.