Chinese, Japanese foreign ministers discuss Korean crisis

BEIJING—Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has discussed the tensions on the Korean Peninsula as well as the prospects of bilateral relations’ development with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida in New York, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday.

“The sides [Japanese and Chinese foreign ministers] have… discussed the nuclear problem of the Korean peninsula,” read the statement issued following the talks.

The foreign ministers agreed to improve the bilateral relations in the sphere of economic cooperation, and maintain contacts on the highest level, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The statement reminded that Beijing and Tokyo this year celebrate the 45th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic relations, as well as 40 years since the conclusion of the bilateral agreement on peace and friendship.

The situation on the Korean peninsula became especially tense during recent months since North Korea carried out a series of missile launches and nuclear tests in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions.

North Korea is believed to have launched a KN-17 intermediate ballistic missile in the early hours of Saturday from a site north of Pyongyang. Japan, South Korea and the United States said the test appeared to have failed after the missile broke up within North Korean territory.