China today hits back at the United States and its Asian allies for their refusal to talk to North Korea, saying dialogue was the only way to calm escalating tension on the divided Korean peninsula.
China took a more belligerent tone a day after US secretary of state Hillary Clinton hosted her South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Washington, calling a report that it was shielding Pyongyang's nuclear programme an "irresponsible accusation".
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have been lukewarm towards Beijing's proposal for emergency talks between the six regional powers, worried they could be perceived as rewarding Pyongyang for its deadly attack on a South Korean island two weeks ago.
They want China to bring its ally North Korea to heel, pressure Beijing has repeatedly resisted.
"The responsibility of maintaining peace and stability in Northeast Asia should be shouldered by all parties in the region," China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news conference.
"All parties are stakeholders. We call on the parties to positively respond to our proposals to resolve the conflict through dialogue and negotiation."
China, the North's main ally and host of stalled six-party talks with North Korea, has been trying hard to take a neutral line in the dispute.
It was not invited to yesterday's trilateral meeting in Washington which put the onus on Beijing to take action.
Mrs Clinton said she was open to resuming talks on the North's nuclear ambitions - the six-party talks include the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States - but Pyongyang must first take steps to end its belligerence and keep its 2005 commitment to abandon its nuclear programmes.
Analysts say Pyongyang will likely carry out more provocations following last month's attack and its latest revelations of nuclear advances for two reasons: to cement a father-to-son leadership transition and to win concessions at any international talks.
"The bottom line: North Korea isn't going to change is behaviour any time soon, and the United States, South Korea and the world will have to live with this reality," said Andrew Scobell, a North Korea expert at the U.S. Army War College.
Analysts say that China is reluctant to lean too hard on the North in the midst of a leadership transition, for fear of a collapse that could spark an exodus of refugees and allow US troops in South Korea right up to the Chinese border.
"China is in a deepening dilemma: how to struggle with the balance between maintaining ties with Pyongyang and maintaining cooperation with Washington," said Zhu Feng, professor of international relations at Peking University.
"Maybe Beijing may be more motivated now to wake up to a new reality."
Analysts say Beijing's relationship with Pyongyang provides a valuable communication bridge, but consider China's influence over the North's as limited.
"China is not in control of North Korea. Most emphatically, it is not. It cannot do much, even if it wishes," said Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul.
Meanwhile, as South Korea staged live-fire drills around the country, Obama sent his top military officer Admiral Mike Mullen's to Seoul.
South Korea's president Lee Myung-bak said he wants to turn the island that was attacked last month, as well as four others nearby, into "military fortresses" and called for improved living conditions to encourage civilians to return.
Mr Lee's comments came as worries grow that many of the residents of Yeonpyeong and the other islands west of North Korea will not return as the North increasingly resorts to violence to reassert its claim over the area.
Reuters