China Cautions Others in Dealing With North Korea
Voice of America
VOA News
12 Jun 2003, 18:13 UTC
China has urged the United States and other countries to exercise caution when dealing with North Korea, so that the crisis over its nuclear development does not worsen.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing Thursday said the nuclear dispute is hurting stability on the Korean peninsula. He also said efforts are being made to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table, after an initial meeting with U.S. and Chinese officials in Beijing in April.
The Chinese spokesman's comments came ahead of a meeting of diplomats from South Korea, Japan and the United States in Hawaii. A U.S. State Department spokesman said the delegations will work towards a peaceful diplomatic solution to the standoff over North Korea's nuclear program.
Diplomatic sources tell Reuters news agency that a U.S. envoy held secret talks with North Korean representatives at the United Nations last week. Reuters says the U.S. envoy wanted to see if Pyongyang would agree to new talks involving not only the United States and China, but also Japan and South Korea.
A U.S. State Department spokesman Thursday said the Reuters report is not true.
Tensions in the region have been high since October, when the United States said that North Korea disclosed it was moving forward on nuclear weapons development, in violation of a 1994 agreement.
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