BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China urges the United States to take due responsibility for the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and provide effective solutions, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday.
U.S. Defence Secretary Ashton Carter reportedly called for further pressure on the DPRK last Friday after the country carried out a new nuclear test and said China bears "responsibility" for tackling the problem.
The essence of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is the conflict between the DPRK and the United States, spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press conference.
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a close neighbor of the DPRK, China has made unremitting efforts to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and safeguard the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, Hua said.
A statement released by the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK Sunday said the United States compelled the DPRK to develop nuclear warheads, and the nuclear threat it has constantly posed to the DPRK for decades is the engine that has pushed the DPRK to this point.
Blindly increasing the pressure and the resulting bounce-back will only make the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula "a firm knot," Hua said, calling for responsibility from all relevant parties.
Read the full story at Xinhua