China Says It's Open To Other Options in Resolving NK Issue

     BEIJING (MNI) - China said Tuesday that it is open to resolving the crisis

on the Korean Peninsula through diplomatic means other than its own "suspension

for suspension" proposal, where the United States and South Korea would stop

their joint military exercises and North Korea would end its nuclear missile

program. 

     China Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang said at a press conference that

China still holds an "open and positive attitude" to resolving the crisis, 12

years after six-party talks over the issue recorded a milestone: a joint

statement on the denuclearization of the peninsula, with North Korea committing

itself to abandoning all nuclear weapons and related programs and the United

States and South Korea promising not to attack North Korea. 

     China, Lu said, remains "dedicated to the denuclearization of the

peninsula," adding that the crisis could only be resolved through further

dialogue and in line with the original principle of the six-party talks of

"commitment for commitment, action for action."

     China had hosted six-party talks on the issue since 2003 -- bringing

together the United States, South and North Korea, Russia and Japan -- but the

talks were discontinued in 2009 after North Korea launched a satellite believed

to be testing ICBM technology, and also detonated a nuclear device. 

     "We hope the relevant parties can come back to the North Korea-related

resolutions and implement these resolutions in their entirety," Lu said. If that

were to occur, "the settlement of the Korean issue will show bright prospects,"

he said.

     Lu repeated China's assertion that a "security issue" was at the core of

the crisis, with the "U.S.-North Korea contradiction" as the centerpiece. 

     He also said President Xi Jinping reaffirmed China's views on the matter in

a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, and that the two would

work together in an attempt to resolve the issue.

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: vince.morkri@marketnews.com

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