China's foreign minister on Wednesday called for all parties involved in the Korean peninsula crisis to avoid actions that "inflame the situation".
The comments came as the US and South Korean navies ended a major exercise in the Yellow Sea intended as a warning to North Korea following last week's deadly artillery strike on the South — war games strongly opposed by China.
"The parties concerned should keep calm and exercise restraint, and work to bring the situation back onto the track of dialogue and negotiation," Yang Jiechi said in a speech in Beijing transcribed on the foreign ministry website.
China has come under growing international pressure to step in forcefully to restrain the unpredictable regime in Pyongyang after the shelling, which left four people dead and led to increased tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Beijing has refrained from joining world criticism of its ally North Korea.
Instead, on Sunday it proposed bringing together the envoys of the stalled six-nation talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament some time in the first 10 days of December for "emergency consultations" in Beijing.
"China decides its position based on the merits of each case and does not side with any party," Yang said Wednesday.
But so far, the United States, South Korea and Japan have responded coolly to China's overture. On Monday, Washington said it would amount to a "PR activity" unless Pyongyang changed its behaviour.
Yang pushed for talks to take place, saying such a meeting would "help ease the current tension and create conditions for the resumption of the six-party talks".
China voiced strong opposition to the four days of joint US-South Korean exercises, as it typically does for such manoeuvres in the Yellow Sea, which it considers its backyard.
"Showing power and confrontation is not a solution to problems and not in the interests of related parties," Yang was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency in remarks not published on the foreign ministry website.
"Stability on the Korean peninsula is conducive to all. Chaos there is detrimental to all."
Yang also said ties between the United States and China in the Asia-Pacific region should be "cooperative and win-win".
"It is important to note that China-US relations in the Asia-Pacific region should be cooperative and win-win, not a zero-sum game," he said.
Xinhua said Yang added the two sides should properly solve their problems through candid dialogue.
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