China's special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs Wu Dawei urged all parties to restart the six-party talks at an early date.
Wu made the remarks at the 26th Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) on development and peace on the Northeast Asia, regional multilateral security, major power relations and other topics.
Wu, once China's chief delegate to the six-party talks, said all parties should give up the cold war mentality and insist on the denuclearization of the peninsula, through dialogue and consultation.
The six-party talks played an important role in maintaining peace and promoting denuclearization, Wu said, adding that the September 19 2005 Joint Statement and its principles are guidance for a solution to the peninsula issue.
The six-party talks, involving China, DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia and Japan, was a multilateral mechanism aimed to solve the Korean nuclear issue. The talks began in 2003 and stalled in December 2008. The DPRK quit the talks in April 2009.
The NEACD was held in Beijing from Wednesday to Thursday. Choe Son Hui, Deputy Director General of the Department of U.S. Affairs of DPRK Foreign Ministry, Kanasugi Kenji, Director-General of the Asian and Oceania Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Kim Gunn, Director General for korean nuclear affairs of the ROK Foreign Ministry, Davydov, Ambassador-at-large of Russian Foreign Ministry and Sung Kim, Special Representative for DPRK Policy of the U.S. Department of State, attended.
Later on Thursday afternoon, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying urged all parties to avoid any action that would escalate tension, in response to the DPRK missile launch on Wednesday.
