Beijing urges the US to consider Pyongyang's calls to take coordinated steps to help accelerate the denuclearization process, Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai said in a recent interview with Fox News.
Cui made the appearance amid a tug of war between Washington and Pyongyang over when the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) should be entitled to rewards for giving up its nuclear weapons.
The DPRK has demanded timely rewards for giving up its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, while the US insists sanctions should or could only be eased when Pyongyang completes full and irreversible denuclearization.
China, along with Russia and the Republic of Korea, has made appeals to the international community to ease sanctions on the DPRK to encourage denuclearization.
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When he was asked whether the Chinese government agrees with the US or the DPRK on the issue, Cui said that the international society has to take "coordinated, phased and step-by-step approach" in order to reach complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
It is necessary to convince DPRK's leader Kim Jong Un to give up all nuclear weapons in hopes that the US would be following a more friendly policy toward his country, Cui said in the televised interview on Sunday.
Cui also said China is and will be implementing the United National Security Council resolution on sanctions against the DPRK, dismissing doubts that Beijing has relaxed them.
He said: "China has voted in favor of all the UN Security Council resolutions [on] sanctions against the DPRK, and we are implementing all these resolutions."
He said both China and the US share the goal of denuclearizing the peninsula and making lasting peace, and therefore China urges the US to take concrete steps to help reach that goal.
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