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Participants in an unpublicized White House meeting, called by U.S. President George W. Bush himself, two months ago discussed the possibility that China may arrange a coup in Pyongyang to bring down the regime sometime late next year, the Oriental Economist reported in its December edition.

China was still oscillating between options, but participants generally agreed that Beijing's mood is changing toward the North's Kim Jong-il regime, "with Beijing gradually, somewhat grudgingly, concluding that some kind of 'regime change' may be needed," the monthly said.

There was also "explicit discussion in the meeting of the possibility that, sometime next year, after China's President Hu Jintao has further consolidated his power, that China may try to engineer a military coup in Pyongyang against Kim Jong-il," it said.

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley arranged the meeting with Michael Green, the former Asia director at the National Security Council, on Oct. 25 with Vice President Dick Cheney also attending, according to the monthly.

White House chief of staff Josh Bolton and chief political adviser Karl Rove, who has special interest in East Asia, were also at the one-hour meeting.

Green took with him Bonnie Glaser, China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Nicholas Eberstadt, a North Korea expert at the American Enterprise Institute.

Former Assistant Secretary of State Jim Kelly was invited but declined, the monthly said.

President Bush wanted to hear the assessments of what China was likely to do about North Korea, particularly how far Beijing is willing to pressure its neighbor and close ally to give up its nuclear weapons and programs.

The monthly said the participants emphasized the importance of keeping China engaged on North Korea issues.

Beijing's three options, as described by the participants, are that it can stay close to North Korea and help strengthen it; turn aggressive and intensify pressure; or maintain the status quo and accept North Korea as a nuclear arms state.

The notion of a China-engineered coup was discussed as a possibility, one participant was quoted as telling the monthly, "but it was very academic and hypothetical and speculative, and hardly the basis for a new policy at this point."

China is one of the key players in the six-party denuclearization negotiations that also involve South and North Korea, the U.S., Japan and Russia. It hosts the multilateral forum and mediates talks between Pyongyang and Washington.

Washington, Dec. 24 (Yonhap News)