China welcomes DPRK-US dialogue resumption

BEIJING - China on Thursday said it welcomed the positive signals from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on resuming talks with the United States, calling on the US side to take practical measures to ease tensions and promote talks.

State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the remarks when responding to a query at a joint news conference held Thursday with Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.

"For some time, sound actions between the parties have also accumulated conditions for the resumption of dialogue," Wang said, stressing that China is pleased to see the DPRK and the United States resume dialogue as scheduled in late September.

Wang said that imposing a list of conditions or seeking concessions through maximum pressure would never work. "This is true in the DPRK-US dialogue, as well as in other countries' dialogues."

"Since last year, the DPRK has taken a series of positive measures, and on these grounds requested the US to meet them halfway with a positive response," he said.

"We think this is fair and reasonable," said Wang, who hoped that the US side can also take practical measures in this regard, and make due efforts to ease tensions and promote talks.

According to news reports, the DPRK is willing to sit with the US side at an agreed-upon time and place in late September to comprehensively discuss issues between the two sides.