SEOUL, South Korea -- China expressed pessimism about bringing the North Korean standoff to a peaceful resolution, even as Kim Jong Un's regime touted new United Nations support for "regular" talks.
Chinese Foreign Minster Wang Yi said Saturday that "the outlook is not optimistic" on the Korean Peninsula and urged both sides to end what he said was a "vicious cycle" of confrontation. Wang's remarks -- part of a broad foreign policy speech in Beijing -- came after North Korea said that a departing U.N. delegation had agreed to help ease tensions.
Wang said there was still hope for a diplomatic solution and reiterated a Chinese proposal for both sides to build trust by suspending military drills and weapons tests. "The first step to pull the situation on the peninsula out of the current 'black hole' of confrontation is to create the conditions and atmosphere to restart dialogue," Wang said.
The U.N.'s top official for political affairs, Undersecretary-General Jeffrey Feltman, left North Korea on Saturday after a visit that sought to ease tensions over the country's nuclear weapons program. The U.S. sent B-1B bombers to join aerial drills with South Korea after Kim tested a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile that he said could reach the U.S. mainland.
The U.N. visit was among efforts involving several countries to help facilitate talks between Kim's regime and President Donald Trump. North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency said Saturday that the visit contributed to a deeper understanding and that they agreed to communicate at "various levels."
Feltman met North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Thursday and also had two sessions of talks with Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Guk.
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said by email Saturday that the delegation had a "broad policy dialogue" in Pyongyang and that Feltman "emphasized the need for the full implementation of all relevant Security Council resolutions."
Feltman noted "the urgent need to prevent miscalculations" on the volatile Korean Peninsula, and the benefit of open channels to reduce the risks of conflict, Dujarric said in the statement. The North Korean officials and Feltman agreed that the situation there was "the most tense and dangerous peace and security issue in the world today."
The U.S. has refused to consider negotiations while Kim tests increasingly powerful nuclear bombs and lobs missiles into the sea around Japan. In an interview Wednesday, Terry Branstad, the U.S. ambassador to China, said the Trump administration would be ready for talks if North Korea renounced further nuclear or missile tests.
Any U.N. mediation would require approval from the U.N. Security Council, on which the U.S. has veto power. The Security Council has called for the resumption of the so-called six-party talks, which included China, Japan, Russia and South Korea and broke off in 2009.
Trump has sought to pressure China to rein in its ally and neighbor before it acquires a nuclear arsenal advanced enough to deter a U.S. attack. Kim said the test showed that North Korea's nuclear program was complete because it could deliver an atomic warhead anywhere in the U.S.
North Korea regularly accuses the U.N. of bias, criticizing the U.N. sanctions resolutions that condemn Pyongyang's missile launches and nuclear tests. Pyongyang says those resolutions are illegal, insisting it has the sovereign right to pursue its missile and nuclear programs because of what it sees as a serious threat from the United States.
North Korea has also recently expressed concern about the latest sanctions affecting the ability of U.N. aid agencies to help the needy in North Korea.
Information for this article was contributed by Kyungji Cho, Kambiz Foroohar, Gareth Allan and Janet Ong of Bloomberg News; and by staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 12/10/2017