Beijing Urges The US To Build Trust With North Korea

State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi pledged on Monday that China will continue to play a constructive role in helping promote a political settlement of the tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula.

"As an old Chinese saying goes, we must tend to the root cause when curing a disease or remedying a mistake," Wang was quoted by the Xinhua news agency as saying.

The root cause for the problems on the Korean Peninsula, he said, was that the external security threats facing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have remained unaddressed and its security concerns unresolved for too long.

"To solve the Korean Peninsula issue, all relevant parties should work toward the same direction," Wang told a press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing.

He said North Korea had taken a series of positive measures aimed at promoting dialogue since 2018, but it had not received due returns, which had worsened the mutual trust between Pyongyang and Washington.

"We have noticed that the US side has recently stated that it has no hostile intent toward the DPRK and is willing to solve the issue through diplomatic means, which is worthy of affirmation."

Wang called on the United States to take concrete measures to address North Korea's legitimate security concerns, build basic mutual trust and push forward a political settlement process for the Korean Peninsula.