BEIJING: China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with a senior North Korean official in Beijing on Monday, coinciding with Pyongyang's launch of a missile capable of reaching almost anywhere of far distances.
China always views its ties with North Korea from a strategic and long-term perspective, the foreign ministry said in a statement, citing Wang's comments in the meeting with North Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Pak Myong Ho.
Beijing is willing to strengthen two-way communication and co-ordination while deepening exchanges and co-operation, Wang added.
Wang and Pak exchanged views on issues of "common concern", on which the ministry did not elaborate.
The meeting was held in a friendly atmosphere, Pyongyang's state media KCNA said, North Korea's ambassador to China Ri Ryong-nam also present.
North Korea is officially China's ally. Both countries are bound by a treaty signed in 1961 to take all necessary measures, including military assistance, to help each other in the event of an attack or an attempted attack by a third country.
The missile has a potential to travel more than 15,000 km, meaning it can reach anywhere in Japan and the mainland United States, Japan's Parliamentary Vice Minister of Defense Shingo Miyake said.
South Korea's National Security Council said it was a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), labelling the launch a destabilising act that ignored international warnings and multiple UN Security Council resolutions.
President Yoon Suk Yeol had ordered the upgrading of the effective operation of "nuclear deterrence" by South Korea and the United States, it added.
Pyongyang has condemned the United States for orchestrating what it called a "preview of a nuclear war," including the arrival of a nuclear-powered US submarine in South Korea on Sunday.
All of North Korea's ballistic missile activities are banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions, though Pyongyang defends them as its sovereign right to self-defence.
North Korea will keep strengthening multilateral ties with China to "safeguard common interests" and "maintain regional peace and stability," Pak was cited as saying in the Chinese statement.
Pak arrived in Beijing last week on a rare official visit ahead of the 75th anniversary next year of the establishment of diplomatic ties.
A spokesperson of China's foreign ministry said the Korean peninsula issue was complex, and urged dialogue by all concerned parties to resolve their issues.
"Attempts to solve the problem through military deterrence and pressure will not work," Wang Wenbin told a regular press conference. "They will only backfire, further intensifying contradictions and tension." — Reuters
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