China backs North Korean call to revise sanctions to revive nuclear talks

Name: North Korea’s Kim Jong-un offers to reconnect vital communication line with South Korea
Uploaded: 2021-10-01T12:30:16.000Z
Duration: 2 min 10 s
Description: North Korea’s Kim Jong-un offers to reconnect vital communication line with South Korea

Instead of empty slogans, US should restart UN resolutions and ‘revise sanctions related to humanitarian aspects’, Beijing says

Denuclearisation talks stalled in 2019 and Pyongyang has resumed its missile tests

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un two years ago, this week received a warm message from Kim. Photo: AFP

Kinling Loin Beijing

Published: 8:30pm, 1 Oct 2021Updated: 11:26pm, 1 Oct 2021

China has backed North Korea’s calls for the US to revise its sanctions to break the stalemate in denuclearisation talks.

Pyongyang resumed its missile tests last month after a six-month lull, the latest being a new hypersonic missile fired on Tuesday. It first fired a nuclear-capable cruise missile on September 12, then followed up with two railway-borne ballistic missiles days later – in breach of UN Security Council resolutions.

Although the Chinese foreign ministry has continued to urge restraint from all parties in response to Pyongyang, spokeswoman Hua Chunying also called for North Korea’s “justified and reasonable concerns” to be taken seriously and addressed.

“The US should not fall back on empty slogans calling for dialogue, but should demonstrate sincerity and come up with a realistic dialogue proposal, restart the reversible UN resolutions at the Security Council, and revise sanctions that are related to humanitarian aspects,” Hua said on Thursday.

02:10

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un offers to reconnect vital communication line with South Korea

South Korea and the US have long pressed China to play a more influential role in securing North Korea’s denuclearisation. Pyongyang’s main ally, it effectively remained North Korea’s only lifeline during the pandemic, and both nations have had tense relations with Washington.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this week sent a personal message to Chinese President Xi Jinping, urging the ruling Communist Party to “crush the insane anti-China forces” as the country marked National Day.

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