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| Pukguksong-2 Ballistic Missile |
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged on Friday to break the vicious circle of sanctions against North Korea and Pyongyang's retaliation in the form of nuclear tests, calling to resume six-way talks on Korean peninsula denuclearization.
MUNICH (Sputnik) — Pyongyang carried out on February 12 a successful test of an intermediate-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile. Launched from an airbase in the western province of North Pyongan, the missile was reported to have traveled about 480 km before plunging into the Sea of Japan.
North Korea's neighbors warned Pyongyang that they saw the latest missile launch as a provocation, and a violation of a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution prohibiting it from carrying out ballistic missile tests.
The UNSC has condemned North Korea for the test. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary said that the UNSC should consider the introduction of new sanctions against Pyongyang.
"We witnessed nuclear test followed by sanctions, sanctions and nuclear tests again. It is a vicious circle and it must be broken because we may all lose in the end," Wang Yi said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference.
"We believe that we still have the possibility to resume the six-way talks, as we lay our hopes on them," Wang Yi said.
The minister added that the United States and North Korea, as the key sides in the Korean Peninsula nuclear dispute, must show political will and take serious steps to reach a mutually-acceptable compromise on the issue.
North Korea declared itself a nuclear power in 2005. The United States, Japan and South Korea, as well as Russia and China, took part in talks with North Korea on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula between 2003 and 2009, when Pyongyang withdrew from the talks.
This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.