China called for emergency talks on resolving a crisis on the Korean peninsula on Sunday, and Seoul and Tokyo said they would study the proposal, as the United States and South Korean militaries started a massive drill.
Beijing’s move to bring the two Koreas to the negotiating table comes after global pressure on China to take a more responsible role in the standoff and try to rein in ally Pyongyang. China made clear that the talks would not amount to a resumption of six-party disarmament discussions which North Korea walked out of two years ago and declared dead. South Korea said it would carefully consider China’s suggestion.
Both Beijing and Pyongyang have been pressing regional powers to return to talks, in some form, for the past few months, in a move analysts say is designed to extract concessions. —Reuters