China's Foreign Ministry reported yesterday President Hu Jintao will make state visits to Britain, Germany, Spain and South Korea from Tuesday to November 17.

At a press briefing on Hu's trip, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing was asked whether the six-party nuclear talks would be discussed by Chinese and South Korean leaders.

He said the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, as a problem of great importance, is discussed by Chinese and foreign leaders on many occasions.

He added that the talks will achieve progress with the concerted efforts of the six nations involved.

The nuclear negotiations, involving China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the United States, South Korea, Russia and Japan, have gone through four rounds in Beijing since August 2003.
Li said progress was made during the fourth round of the talks, which concluded in August this year, with the signing of the first joint statement.

"We hope that new progress will be made in the future, although we know that there will be inevitable difficulties," Li said.

The whole world shares a common desire to see a peaceful and nuclear-weapons-free Korean Peninsula, Li said.

With Hu's upcoming visit to South Korea, the current kimchi dispute between the two countries has also become a focus of media attention.

South Korea announced on October 21 that it had found parasite eggs in Chinese-made kimchi, a spicy food made of fermented cabbage and radish consumed at almost every meal by Koreans. On October 31, parasite eggs were also found by China in kimchi and other food products imported from South Korea, and China announced it would stop such imports from that date.

Li said the problem would be solved if both countries comply with international trade rules.

"I personally love to eat Kimchi," Li said, acknowledging that he was confident that the Kimchi problem would be solved through contact between the two sides.