Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Washington and Pyongyang on Friday to “remain patient” and try to work out a road map for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula despite the failure of the US and North Korean leaders to reach a deal in Hanoi last month. But even though there was no agreement, the second face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in less than a year still represented an “important step” in the right direction towards denuclearisation and establishment of peace, Wang said. His remarks, made on the sidelines of the annual National People’s Congress in Beijing, came as US National Security Adviser John Bolton said in Washington that Trump was open for further talks with Pyongyang over the nuclear issue. Wang said that considering the complexity of and decades of slow progress on ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons, the problem “cannot be solved overnight”. “All parties should have reasonable expectations. We should not set a threshold too high, nor should we unilaterally impose unrealistic demands,” he said. North Korea rebuilding part of missile launch site it promised it would dismantle at first Trump-Kim summit in Singapore: reports Wang said Washington and Pyongyang should try to come up with a general road map and then act “in a phased and synchronised” fashion, starting with goals that would be easier to achieve. “The key to solving the issue lies in not being a prisoner of history but in breaking the cycle of mistrust,” he added. China’s top diplomat also applauded Beijing’s relations with Pyongyang, saying they showed marked improvement over the past year after Kim’s four meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Relations between the communist neighbours, which have historically been described as “close as lips and teeth”, were strained two years ago over Pyongyang’s repeated nuclear provocations and Beijing’s decision to support the Washington-led United Nations economic and trade sanctions. “China’s role has been irreplaceable,” Wang said, adding that Beijing would also support North Korea’s “legitimate concerns addressed in the process” of denuclearisation talks with the US. But Wang dodged a question about Xi’s much-rumoured plans to visit Pyongyang soon in time for the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Instead, he said Kim’s record-breaking four visits to China within a year showed bilateral relations had turned a new page. Wang said China-North Korea ties would not be affected by “temporary incidents”, and China fully supported Pyongyang’s desire to explore a path suitable to its own development and to pursue a new national strategy focusing more on economic development. Sun Xingjie, a North Korea expert at Jilin University, said Wang’s remarks showed Beijing was consistent on developing relations with Pyongyang. “His remarks showed our government’s intention to pursue better bilateral ties while standing firm on denuclearisation and the existing UN sanctions. The biggest hurdle to bilateral relations has always been Pyongyang’s reckless pursuit of nuclear ambitions rather than international sanctions,” Sun said. Explained: what next for North Korea after failed Trump-Kim summit? But China, North Korea’s main diplomatic and economic backer, has also shown flexibility in the past year on easing the sanctions, a priority for Kim, in exchange for North Korea’s willingness to take steps to relinquish its nuclear weapons. The Vietnam summit late last month collapsed over differences about how far North Korea was prepared to limit its nuclear programme and the degree of US willingness to ease economic sanctions. Meanwhile, Bolton, a well-known hawk on North Korea, told Fox News on Thursday that “the president’s obviously open to talking again. We’ll see when that might be scheduled or how it might work out.” The latest overture by Washington followed reports about new activity at a factory that produced North Korea’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US. Another senior State Department official also said on Thursday that Washington was keen to resume talks as soon as possible, but North Korea’s negotiators needed to be given more latitude than they were ahead of the summit. Despite the apparent setback, the senior official insisted “we still believe this [denuclearisation] is all achievable within the president’s first term”. Unless re-elected, Trump’s term will end in January 2021. The official’s positive outlook took many Chinese analysts by surprise, with some saying such remarks were inconsistent with the views of many senior US officials in the lead-up to the Hanoi summit. “I’ve never heard of these kind of optimistic projections before and it may not have been backed up by the reality on the ground,” Sun said. “After the collapse of the Hanoi summit, I think both sides should try to build consensus. These kind of remarks can only strengthen the public perception that there are disagreements on North Korea in the US administration.” Additional reporting by Reuters