China, South Korea warn Pyongyang on nukes

BEIJING, June 27 (UPI) -- Denuclearization of North Korea is in the common national security interest of the Chinese and South Korean governments, South Korea's president said.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye met Thursday with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing to review bilateral ties and the regional security situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Analysts at Johns Hopkins University in Washington this week said satellite imagery of a North Korean nuclear site suggested a future test of a nuclear device is possible. North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and earlier this year.

Both leaders said Thursday a nuclear North Korea is not acceptable under any circumstances.

"We shared an understanding that North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons cannot be tolerated under any circumstances and confirmed that realizing the denuclearization of North Korea and maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula conform to the common interests of the two countries," Park was quoted by South Korea's Yonhap news agency as saying.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula escalated in the aftermath of North Korea's nuclear test this spring. Joint U.S. and South Korean military drills prompted stark criticism from North Korea, which said recently the United States was exacerbating the regional security situation.

Xi said he was eager to bring North Korea back to multilateral nuclear negotiations with South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. Nuclear negotiations started in 2003 but have been suspended since 2008.