North Korea claimed Monday it successfully conducted its first ever nuclear weapons test, drawing a chorus of international condemnation, even from traditional allies such as China. Several countries, led by Japan and the United States, have called for tough UN sanctions against the impoverished communist state.
Liu Jianchao, an official Foreign Ministry spokesman, said China was consulting members of the UN Security Council, parties to six-nation talks - North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States, which have been engaged in talks on the nuclear issue since 2003 - and other states.
North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003, and in February 2005 announced it had acquired nuclear weapons. Negotiators have proposed aid and security guarantees for the secretive regime in exchange for a renunciation of its nuclear program.
The spokesman said Beijing considered an immediate resumption of the six-nation talks, which stalled last November over Pyongyang's demands that the U.S. lift sanctions imposed on it for its alleged involvement in counterfeiting and other illegal activities, as the best way to resolve the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
Jianchao said Tang Jiaxuan, special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao, left for the U.S. Wednesday night, following which he will go to Russia for further talks.
He did not rule out that the envoy might also visit North Korea, saying China was seeking good neighborly relations with it, and that it would not cut off economic assistance to Pyongyang.
"China's economic assistance to North Korea is improving the living standards of its people," Jianchao said.