President Xi Jinping has said China will never allow chaos and war on the Korean peninsula and reiterated his call for North Korea to rein in its nuclear ambitions, which have raised tensions in the region.
Mr Xi made the remarks in a speech to a group of Asian foreign ministers attending the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia in Beijing.
“As a close neighbour of the peninsula, we will absolutely not permit war or chaos on the peninsula. This situation would not benefit anyone,” Mr Xi told the conference, in remarks carried by the Xinhua news agency.
His comments came after North Korea test-fired what appeared to be its Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) early on Thursday, but the launch seems to have ended in failure, a South Korean military official said.
"It is highly likely that the launch failed. With that in mind, South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed assessment," the South Korean official told the Yonhap news agency.
China is North Korea’s only major ally but it has been angered by the North’s nuclear ambitions and Beijing has backed tough new UN sanctions imposed last month after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January.
Pyongyang followed that test with launches of various missiles that it hopes will eventually be able to deliver a nuclear warhead.
The Musudan in theory has the range to reach any part of Japan and the US territory of Guam, although Seoul insists the missile has never been successfully flight-tested.
North Korea is widely expected to conduct another nuclear test before May 6th, when the ruling Workers’ Party holds a congress for the first time in 36 years at which the young leader Kim Jong-un is expected to try and cement his grip on power.
“Signs for an imminent fifth nuclear test are being detected ahead of North Korea’s seventh party congress,” South Korean president Park Geun-hye told a national security meeting.
Mr Xi urged all the parties involved “not to stimulate each other or flare up contradictions” and get back to dialogue and negotiations at an early date.
North Korea’s economy is struggling and is said to rely on financial and material aid from China to keep ticking over, but Beijing has been wrong-footed by the North’s nuclear ambitions and is keen to adopt a high-profile diplomatic role in resolving the stand-off on the Korean peninsula.
Nearly 30,000 US troops are based in South Korea and the two Koreas are still technically at war after the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a treaty.
One of China’s greatest fears is that regime collapse could lead to US troops on its borders.
China “has dedicated great efforts in controlling, managing the situation and pushing forward dialogue and negotiation among the parties”, Mr Xi said.
