BEIJING, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- China and the United States are committed to expanding efforts to resolve tensions with North Korea over its nuclear program, a senior Chinese official says.
Speaking to a forum on China-U.S. relations, Assistant Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang said Washington and Beijing are "working hard to expand and deepen the convergence of interests, while maintaining effective coordination," the South Korean Yonhap news service reported Saturday.
Zheng said opportunities for such cooperation to resolve regional issues and promoted global stability "are actually increasing not decreasing."
At the same time, Zheng warned the United States it should "see clearly what is right and what is wrong" and stay out of disputes between China and its neighbors, including Japan and the Philippines.
Also speaking at the forum, Stephen Hadley, national security adviser to President George W. Bush, urged Washington and Beijing to "work together on an equal footing" to deal with those challenges.
"Neither the [United States] nor China can solve these problems alone," he said.
North Korea has declared it will not sign a non-aggression pact offered last week by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, The Daily Telegraph reported.
In a statement by the National Defense Commission, Pyongyang warned of "all-out war" if the United States did not end its joint military drills with South Korea.
"We emphasize again that the United States must withdraw various measures aimed to isolate and strangulate us," the statement said. "Dependent upon this are ... peace and security, not only on the Korean peninsula but the U.S. mainland as well."
