China vows to work with North Korea to protect regional stability as tensions with Seoul escalate

China said it will work with North Korea on regional stability amid escalating tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang.

The Chinese Communist Party’s diplomatic chief Liu Jianchao told North Korean envoy Ri Ryong-nam in Beijing on Friday that China would increase strategic communications and jointly safeguard regional peace with North Korea.

“China is willing to work with [North Korea] … to carry forward our traditional friendship, deepen strategic communication, promote mutually beneficial cooperation, advance bilateral ties and to safeguard regional peace and stability,” Liu said, according to a statement from the International Liaison Department, the Communist Party’s diplomatic arm.

Ri, also quoted in the statement, said North Korea firmly supported China’s defence of its “core interests” on Taiwan, Hong Kong, human rights and other issues. He added that Pyongyang would use the opportunity of the 75th anniversary of its bilateral ties with Beijing this year to implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries.

Liu’s meeting with Ri came after North Korea announced on Friday that it tested its Haeil-5-23 nuclear-capable underwater attack drones in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, in response to the biggest-ever trilateral drill between the US, South Korea and Japan this week.