China says North Korea’s nuke test “highly regrettable”

Advocates early resumption of the stalled six-party talks meant to negotiate Pyongyang’s conditional integration into the international mainstream.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying speaks during a briefing at the Foreign Ministry in Beijing on Wednesday. China, North Korea's main ally, said it "firmly opposes" Pyongyang's purported hydrogen bomb test and is monitoring the environment along its border with the North near the test site.

China has called the announcement by North Korea that it had conducted a hydrogen bomb test as “highly regrettable”.

It also advocated an early resumption of the stalled six-party talks meant to negotiate Pyongyang’s conditional integration into the international mainstream.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said that the announcement by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) of conducting a hydrogen bomb test on Wednesday was “highly regrettable.”

“It was a breach of U.N. resolutions and a blow to the Korean Peninsula denuclearisation process.”

Pushes away any viable solution

The write-up noted that the nuclear test “has pushed further away any viable solution of the Korean Peninsula predicament and thrusted more uncertainty into regional stability.”

“Turning Northeast Asia into a keg of powder benefits none in the neighborhood, even the DPRK itself, which has pledged to promote economic development.”

‘ Insecurity after hostility with U.S.’

Yet, the article linked North Korea’s action to the “Pivot to Asia” doctrine of the United States, which has become the foundation of the accumulation of U.S.-led forces in the Asia-Pacific.

“On the other hand, the DPRK’s defiance was deeply rooted in its strong sense of insecurity after years of hostility with the United States, whose pivot to Asia appears much like a show of muscles,” the write-up observed.

Dialogue, negotiation stressed

The commentary stressed that that in the long run, “dialogue and negotiation remain the only optimal means to erase the deep-seated suspicion between certain parties and eventually solve the decades-old Korean Peninsula stalemate.”

It advocated that the “the six-party talks still stands out as the most promising way out of the regional quagmire”.

Needed: amenable conditions

The write-up added that it is “high time for all parties concerned to think and act rationally to create favorable conditions for an early resumption of the long-stalled mechanism.”

Earlier in the day, the China Earthquake Network Center said a 4.9-magnitude earthquake jolted the DPRK at 0130 GMT at a depth of 0 km.

Xinhua reported that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which also reported the temblor but initially, put the magnitude at 5.1 and the depth at 10 km, later revised the depth to 0 km. The epicenter of the jolt was located 19 km east-northeast of Sungjibaegam, Ryanggang Province, at a depth of 10 km, according to preliminary data from the USGS.

S. Korea notes unusual seismic activity

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency noted “unusual” seismic activity near a “known” North Korean nuclear site, which it said seemed to be of artificial origin and was a clear sign of a nuclear test.

“The Foreign Ministry is currently holding a meeting presided over by the Minister to immediately determine the situation following the reports,” a Ministry official said, Yonhap reported.