China Hopes to Find New Channels to Peacefully Resolve North Korea Crisis

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday that Beijing hopes to identify new ways to peacefully resolve current tensions around North Korea.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — Wang said China hopes for "new consensus" on how to fully implement UN Security Council’s resolutions on North Korea. He also expressed hope that the UN discussions will help to identify "new channels" to peacefully resolve tensions.

Tensions surrounding North Korea's activities with both nuclear and ballistic missiles have escalated in recent months after Pyongyang conducted a number of nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

Beijing finds it important to resume peace talks on North Korea which should ultimately be conducted in a six-party format.

Wang said resuming the talks is crucial. He added, however, that it was too early to determine specific format of the talks, which could be bilateral, trilateral or multilateral. Wang added that China hopes to ultimately get back to six-party talks on North Korea.

The most recent missile launch by Pyongyang reportedly took place early on April 16 but, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, it ultimately failed.

In response to the growing tensions in the region, the United States sent a naval group led by US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson to the Korean Peninsula. On April 14, US media reported that Trump might order a strike against North Korea if Pyongyang decided to carry out another nuclear weapons test.