China urges US-North Korea talks on missile

Seoul, June 22: China has urged North Korea and the United States to hold talks to find a breakthrough in the standoff over Pyongyang's missile programme, a South Korean newspaper quoted Beijing's top nuclear envoy as saying.

North Korea yesterday said it wanted new direct talks with the United States to ease tensions over possible plans to launch a long-range missile, but Washington rejected the proposal and demanded Pyongyang's return to stalled multilateral talks.

North Korea's claim to have a sovereign right to test its missiles and US criticism that a test would violate existing agreements signed by the North are making it difficult to resolve the issue, China's Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei said.

''We hope that the related parties will resolve this problem through negotiations and dialogue,'' Wu was quoted as saying in an interview with South Korea's Maeil Business Newspaper.

''North Korea's test launch of a missile must not have an impact on the six-party talks,'' Wu said in Beijing yesterday.

The talks among the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia have been stalled since the last round in November after Washington cracked down on firms suspected of helping Pyongyang's illicit activities such as counterfeiting.

Pyongyang is feeling the pinch of the crackdown, and it is also piqued that US and world attention has shifted to concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions, analysts and diplomats said.

Washington says there is evidence North Korea might test-fire its Taepodong-2 long-range missile and has activated a ground-based interceptor missile-defence system.

Pentagon officials declined to say whether they would try to shoot down any missile, but other US officials have said that is unlikely given the launch is probably aimed at the open sea.

Reuters

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