China calls for restraint

BEIJING, May 21 (UPI) -- China, reacting to the finding North Korea was responsible for the March 26 sinking of a South Korean ship, called on all parties to use restraint.

China, a close friend of North Korea and the benefactor of the isolated, economically-depressed Communist country, was responding to a finding by experts from the United States, Britain, Australia, Sweden and South Korea that a North Korean submarine torpedoed the naval ship Cheonan, causing it to sink in the Yellow Sea, leaving 46 of its sailors dead.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said China wants all parties to exercise calm and restraint, properly deal with relevant issues, and avoid escalation of the situation, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Ma said China remains devoted to safeguarding regional peace and promoting the progress of the six-party talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The talks among the United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas remain stalled after the North quit over U.N. sanctions.

The Chinese reaction comes amid wide support for the finding on the ship's sinking and condemnation of North Korea which, with its nuclear and missile tests, has already made the Korean Peninsula tense.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met with his security advisers Friday to consider counter-measures. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said many consider a military retaliation unlikely.

South Korea has suspended many of the inter-Korean economic exchanges as they are now tied to the North's denuclearization. Yonhap said South Korean officials have hinted at diplomatic responses, including taking the issue to the U.N. Security Council for additional sanctions on the North.

China is one of five permanent members of the Security Council and can veto any resolution.

Yonhap reported another issue South Korea needs to consider is the industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, which is funded by Seoul. The report said more than 100 South Korean manufacturing firms operate in Kaesong.

North Korea, denying the findings on the ship's sinking, has been issuing dire threats if South Korea takes retaliatory steps. Saying it will regard the present situation "as the phase of a war," North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said if South Korea opts for retaliation, Pyongyang will react strongly "with such merciless punishment as the total freeze of the inter-Korean relations, the complete abrogation of the North-South agreement on non-aggression and a total halt to the inter-Korean cooperation undertakings."