China: tensions “very grave” on Korean Peninsula

World Today

[FILE] China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivers his remarks outside the Security Council at United Nations headquarters, Friday, April 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters Friday that tensions on the Korean Peninsula were “very grave”, and “at a critical point”.

Speaking ahead of a United Nations Security Council ministerial meeting on Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, Wang said China agrees to step up efforts on non proliferation.

He said it is committed to realising the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, and upholding stability there and not allowing war to break out.

Wang repeated a proposal for DPRK to suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for a suspension of large-scale U.S.-South Korea military exercises, which the allies have rejected.

China is eager to see a resumption of negotiations.

Six-nation talks with North Korea on its nuclear programme, hosted by Beijing, stalled in 2008.

The Obama administration attempted to resurrect them in 2012, but a deal to provide food aid in exchange for a nuclear freeze soon collapsed.

Story by the Associated Press.