Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Monday that he called upon the Pyongyang government to resume the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
The Chinese foreign minister raised the denuclearization issue with his North Korean counterpart Pa Ui-chun during bilateral talks at the sidelines of an ASEAN security conference.
"Our unchangeable goal is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and we continue to make efforts to achieve the goal," Wang Yi told reporters.
"We certainly need the six-party talks. To have the six-party talks, the Chinese side will continue to talk to all the parties concerned to work toward the common goal of creating conditions" to resume the talks," said Wang adding that talks are the best way to convince Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambition.
"I just want to let you know that as the chair of the six-party talks we will continue to encourage peaceful sentiment for dialogue," said the foreign minister.
Since 2008, the six-party talks have been in a state of limbo and in recent months, tensions over the Korean peninsula have escalated following a series of nuclear and missile tests by Pyongyang despite opposition from South Korea, the United States and other international communities.
China, North Korea's best ally and main supplier of aid to the country has strongly urged North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions in recent months.
Japan, South Korea and U.S. have apparently been pressurizing the Beijing government to cut off its aid to the Pyongyang government in order to force North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons plans.
South Korean foreign minister Yun Byung-se Sunday termed all of Pyonyang's posturing of dialogue offers as a "charm offensive." He said talks with North Korea were meaningless unless Pyongyang got serious about abandoning its nuclear ambitions.
"Recently, North Korea suddenly started a charm offensive. The Republic of Korea (South Korea) has always been open to a dialogue, but it will not have dialogue for the sake of dialogue itself," said Yun. "North Korea must first demonstrate its sincerity through concrete actions by abiding by its international obligations under the U.N. Security Council Resolutions and its own commitments on denuclearization."
