China on Tuesday backed U.S. President Donald Trump’s openness for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which seemingly aligned with Beijing’s position of resolving the crisis in the Korean peninsula through dialogue.
"China has always believed that using peaceful means via dialogue and consultation to resolve the peninsula's nuclear issue is the only realistic, feasible means to achieve denuclearisation of the peninsula and maintain peace and stability there, and is the only correct choice," said Geng Shuang, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman during a daily news briefing.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, Mr. Trump said he was ready in principle for engaging North Korea’s young leader in dialogue.
"If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honored to do it," the U.S. President told Bloomberg News. But unlike China, Washington has not rejected the use of force against North Korea.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer however clarified that such a dialogue was not imminent.
“Clearly conditions are not there right now,” he observed.
Mr. Trump’s dramatic statement, coinciding with a show of force during military exercises among the U.S, South Korea and Japan, has not, so far, evoked a matching response from Pyongyang.
On the contrary, focusing on the flight of two supersonic B-1B Lancer bombers during the manoeuvres, North Korea said the bombers conducted "a nuclear bomb dropping drill against major objects" in its territory at a time when [Mr.] Trump and "other U.S. warmongers are crying out for making a preemptive nuclear strike," targeting Pyongyang.
"The reckless military provocation is pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula closer to the brink of nuclear war," the North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said on Tuesday.
