China: North Korea mulling initiatives for economic reform

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (C) holds a bottle of carbonated drink upon his visit to the Sonhung Foodstuff Factory in Pyongyang in this undated picture released by North Korea's official KCNA news agency December 13, 2010. KCNA did not state expressly the date when the picture was taken.

BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea is considering whether they need initiatives for economic reform and opening up, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said on Wednesday.

Beijing has shored up its support for Pyongyang in the past two years, despite regional tension centred on North Korea's actions, including atomic test blasts in 2006 and 2009 that drew U.N. sanctions backed by China.

North Korea's secretive leader Kim Jong-il visited China last month, where the two sides vowed that their alliance "sealed in blood" would pass on to their successors.

Beijing sees North Korea as a strategic barrier against the United States and its regional allies. But that barrier comes with an economic and diplomatic price tag.

As Pyongyang's ties with South Korea and much of the outside world have soured, Kim has leaned more on ally Beijing for support, which has cost China both in economic aid and in strains with South Korea and other nations alarmed by North Korea's nuclear weapons development and military brinkmanship.

(Reporting by Don Durfee; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)