China wants U.S., N.K. to be flexible on stalled nuclear talks: official

China wants both the United States and North Korea to be more "flexible, sincere and responsible" to help resume stalled international talks on the North's nuclear weapons program, a visiting Chinese official said Friday.

"China hopes North Korea and the U.S. should show flexibility and take measures favorable to the reopening of the six-party talks," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a meeting with South Korean reporters here.

Liu is on a four-day visit to South Korea as part of regular exchange programs between the foreign ministries of South Korea and China.

"For the resuscitation of the six-party talks, North Korea and the United States should take flexible, sincere and responsible stances," Liu said, speaking in Chinese through an interpreter.

"In the previous rounds of nuclear talks, North Korea and the U.S. held contacts that could be construed bilateral talks, so the differences on the contact's formula is only superficial.”

Ties between North Korea and the U.S. have worsened since the North conducted multiple missile tests on July 5, despite repeated international warnings not to do so.

North Korea proposed holding bilateral talks with the U.S. to resolve the missile dispute, but the U.S. responded that the issue should be dealt with within the framework of the six-party nuclear talks.

China, the North's main benefactor, hosted several rounds of six-nation talks aimed at coaxing Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program. The talks, which included the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan, have been deadlocked since November, as North Korea boycotted them, taking issue with U.S. financial sanctions on it.

The North's missile tests have spawned questions over China's leverage over North Korea as Beijing had also called on its communist ally not to go ahead with the launches.

"The two countries, both independent sovereign nations, have maintained amicable relations and achieved many things over the past several decades," the Chinese official said. "But there could be differences among close neighbors."

Seoul, Aug. 4 (Yonhap News)