Wang Yi Hail's Kim's Move To Reduce Tensions

Foreign minister Wang Yi congratulated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Thursday on his moves to reduce tensions with South Korea,during their meeting in Pyongyang, officials said.

Wang also told Kim that Beijing backs North Korea's shift of focus to economic growth, along with its efforts to resolve its "legitimate security concerns" while taking steps to denuclearise, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

China "supports and congratulates" Kim's summit meeting last week with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the statement they issued, it quoted Wang as saying.

"The meeting has brought a favourable opportunity for a political resolution of the [Korean] Peninsula issue," Wang said.

Relations between China and North Korea have undergone a vast outward improvement following Kim's recent visit to Beijing. China, North Korea's biggest trading partner, has joined United Nations sanctions against the North that have cut trade between them by around 90 percent.

Kim's March trip was his first to his country's only major ally since taking power six years ago, kicking off a flurry of diplomacy. A meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump is expected in the coming weeks, although arrangements have yet to be announced.

For China, the recent meetings offer an opportunity for it to reinforce its importance in the region and ensure that its concerns and interests are respected in any future negotiations.

Wang also told Kim that China supports efforts to bring a formal end to the Korean War, which was halted with an armistice, not a peace treaty, and North Korea's "shift of strategic focus to building its economy".

The ministry quoted Kim as hailing relations with China and stating that denuclearisation was North Korea's "firm position".

Wang earlier told North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho that China is willing to work with the North to boost "practical economic and trade cooperation" and fully supports it in "concentrating its strength to carry out economic construction," the ministry said. (AP)