China wants to resume stalled six-party nuke talks with N. Korea before July

Beijing, Mar. 5 (ANI): China's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula affairs, Wu Dawei, has said that Beijing wants the stalled nuclear disarmament talks with Pyongyang to resume before July.

It was the first occasion on which China openly talked about its time frame to thaw the Six-Party Talks that have been frozen since April last year.China's goal is to restart the Six-Party Talks in the first half of this year. That's our expectation, but it is difficult to say if this will be realized," China Daily quoted Wu, as saying on the sidelines of the ongoing annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

The Six-Party Talks involve the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), China, Japan and Russia.

Beijing and Pyongyang held three rounds of high-level meetings in February.

The US embassy in China on Thursday said it has yet to confirm the latest information, while the embassies of the ROK and Japan did not comment on the issue.

Pyongyang has set two conditions for it to return to the talks - lifting UN sanctions against it and holding peace talks aimed at formally ending the 1950-1953 Korean War.

But the US, ROK and Japan said Pyongyang must first return to the talks and show notable progress before its conditions can be met.

"China is thinking about raising its own suggestions on the issue," Wu said. (ANI)