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China calls for talks resumption

Chinese soldiers guard the North Korean embassy in Beijing November 29, 2010. China remains Pyongyang's biggest trade partner and arguably has the most leverage on Kim Jon-Il's regime. North Korea placed surface-t-surface missiles on launch pads in the Yellow Sea, South Korea's state press said, as the United States and South Korea began military drills and China called for emergency talks. UPI/Stephen Shaver
Chinese soldiers guard the North Korean embassy in Beijing November 29, 2010. China remains Pyongyang's biggest trade partner and arguably has the most leverage on Kim Jon-Il's regime. North Korea placed surface-t-surface missiles on launch pads in the Yellow Sea, South Korea's state press said, as the United States and South Korea began military drills and China called for emergency talks. UPI/Stephen Shaver | License Photo

SEOUL, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- China Wednesday called for an early resumption of the stalled six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament amid tensions between the two Koreas.

The call was made by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who arrived in Seoul where concerns remain about the North's uranium enrichment program and its recent actions, including the shelling of a South Korean island last November.

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Yang, who met with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, said, "We will continue to make joint efforts with relevant countries, including South Korea, to promote peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, restore six-party talks at an early date, and realize the goal of denuclearization," the Yonhap News Agency reported.

Seoul wants North Korea to take responsibility for the deadly island shelling and last May's sinking of its war ship that killed 46 sailors before the six-party talks can resume. The South also wants the North to demonstrate its commitment to denuclearization as concerns rise about the North's uranium enrichment program, which could be used to make nuclear bombs.

However, China, one of the members in the talks, which also include the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, and Japan, wants all issues to be discussed only after the talks resume, Yonhap said.

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Yang's trip comes as the U.N. Security Council gets ready to decide whether the uranium enrichment program violates its resolutions against the North, the report said. Pyongyang has said the program is for peaceful purposes.

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