China backs strong UN statement against North Korea

China has endorsed the strongly worded UN Security Council statement condemning the botched rocket launch by its close ally North Korea and called for more dialogue and consultations.

The UN Security Council statement was a result of consultations by all members of the body and reflects the basic consensus of the international community, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Liu Weimin said.

"It has been proven that dialogue and consultations are the only correct way to solve problems," Liu said in a statement.

His remarks came after the 15-nation UN body issued a presidential statement stating that North Korea's failed April 13 rocket launch has raised "grave security concerns" and demanded that Pyongyang fully comply with relevant Security Council resolutions.

Liu said China participated in the Security Council consultations in a responsible and constructive way and it believes that the Council should make "more efforts to promote dialogue and maintain peace and stability on the Korean peninsula".

The Chinese government believes it is in the common interest of all relevant parties to resume the six-party talks and continue to make efforts to denuclearise the peninsula, he said.

"China is willing to keep in close touch with all parties concerned to push the six-party talks forward and make unswerving efforts to realise long-lasting peace on the peninsula," state-run Xinhua quoted him as saying.

Analysts said Beijing's endorsement of the resolution indicates China was not pleased with the North Korean government's decision to go ahead with the satellite launch, jeopardising its recent agreement with US to get 21000 tons food aid.

Washington has cancelled that agreement following the missile launch to put a satellite into orbit, which failed midway.

Chinese officials also indicated that Beijing was trying to prevail on the North Korean government to not go for the much speculated nuclear test to compensate for the failed launch of the satellite.