Chinese President Xi Jinping in a letter invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to cooperate to “accelerate peace” around the world, the official North Korean news agency KCNA reported.
The move comes as tensions peaked on the Korean Peninsula following a record-breaking series of missile tests by Pyongyang, while Seoul, Washington and Tokyo stepped up military cooperation.
On November 18, Pyongyang launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that fell from Japanese territory. Kim Jong Un has threatened the United States with a nuclear retaliation if his country is attacked.
“The world, times and history are changing like never before,” Xi said in response to a message from Kim, who congratulated him on his reappointment as head of the Communist Party and State of China in October.
“Faced with this new situation, I stand ready to make positive contributions together with you to accelerate peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and around the world,” he added.
China is the most important ally and trading partner of North Korea, which is under heavy UN sanctions for its nuclear and missile programs.
After Monday’s UN Security Council meeting, China and Russia refused to join 13 other council members, including the US, India, France and the UK, in condemning Pyongyang’s Nov. 18 ICBM launch.
In May, Beijing and Moscow vetoed a draft resolution submitted by Washington to increase sanctions against North Korea.
During an interview last week on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, US President Joe Biden asked Xi Jinping to tell North Korea “clearly” that it should not conduct new nuclear tests that Seoul and Washington think he is preparing.
A US official later stated that “Our diplomacy will certainly seek China to join countries that publicly denounce the day and use their influence to persuade” North Korea.
