China's Premier Wen Jiabao attends a meeting with Uruguayan Vice-President and President of the Congress Danilo Astori, during a visit to the Congress building in Montevideo, June 23, 2012.  The powerful uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met both China's president and premier on Friday in a sign that relations between the two countries are back on track after Kim irked Beijing with a rocket launch soon after taking power. State media have said the six-day visit to China by Jang Song Thaek, the chief of the central administrative department of the Workers' Party of Korea, is a possible prelude to a visit by Kim himself. North Korea drew strenuous objections from China, the United States, Japan and others by testing a rocket in April because they feared it would add to tensions on the Korean Peninsula between the North and the South. The ministry said the two sides signed a number of cooperation agreements to further develop the zones _ Rason on the Korean Peninsula's northern tip, and Hwanggumphyong, an island in the Yalu River that marks their border to the southwest.
– It's time for authoritarian North Korea to let in some free markets, urged Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao today, following a rare meeting with a high-ranking North Korean official, reports Reuters. Wen and President Hu Jintao met yesterday with Jang Song Thaek, the powerful uncle of North Korea's young leader Kim Jong Un, encouraging North Korea to improve its laws, reform customs services, and encourage business investment. The two countries announced the creation of two special economic zones near the China-North Korea border earlier in the week. Jang is widely considered one of the top forces for reform in the North, so getting strong support from China is vital for the new regime, notes the AP. China may consider North Korea a vital buffer between it and South Korea, Japan, and the United States, but Pyongyang has often been a difficult ally, with its bellicose rhetoric, missile and nuclear weapons programs, and ravaged economy. China's exports to North Korea totalled just $2.28 billion in 2010, while South Korea is China's third-largest trading partner. China's GDP reached $7.3 trillion in 2011, South Korea's $1.1 trillion, and North Korea's an estimated $40 billion.