MOSCOW (Sputnik) — China will place more emphasis on dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said Tuesday.
"It's an expression of [China's] will to place a priority on the North Korean nuclear issue," Yun told local radio, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.
In 2003, North Korea joined talks on denuclearization with the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea, after Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that it ratified in 1985.
Pyongyang declared itself a nuclear power in 2005, and tested its first nuclear weapon the following year.
The six-party denuclearization talks came to a halt in 2009, when Pyongyang tested its second nuclear weapon, and have been stalled ever since. North Korea carried out its most recent nuclear test in 2013.
The country’s nuclear tests receive widespread international condemnation.
