China and the United States agreed to continue dialogue on the issues of Iraq and the nuclear situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Guangya and visiting US Under-Secretary of State John Bolton had an in-depth exchange of views on the current situation regarding strategic security, international arms control and non-proliferation as well as the Iraq issue and the nuclear situation in the DPRK, according to a ministry press release.

The two leaders concluded the first round of consultations at vice-foreign ministerial level on strategic security, multilateral arms control and non-proliferation Monday.

The two sides agreed that the consultations helped promote mutual understanding. They agreed to continue dialogue on these issues, according to the ministry. But the press release gave no details.

At a press release held in the US Embassy in Beijing, Bolton said the United Nations Security Council could consider issuing a unanimous statement calling on Pyongyang to renounce its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to refreeze its nuclear power facility.

Bolton said the United Nations body was capable of handling the issue.

However, Chinese analysts said that this would not be the best way to ease the tension.

"That is not suitable for solving the issue in the current situation because it can only make the problem more complicated,'' said Professor Jin Jingyi, deputy director of the Korean Peninsula Studies Center.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday that the Bush administration might formally bring the DPRK nuclear issue to the United Nations Security Council.

On the same day, the Korean Central News Agency said that Pyongyang is against any move by the United States to internationalize the nuclear issue on the peninsula.

The nuclear issue is a product of the "anti-DPRK policy'' of the United States, the agency said. It added that the problem should be resolved by the United States and the DPRK rather than by any third party, including the United Nations Security Council.

Jin said that Washington's intention to leave the issue to the Security Council could not prove its "100 percent sincerity'' about resolving the issue.

"The United States can do more than that,'' Jin said.

When Pyongyang pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it said it had no intention of producing nuclear weapons but the Bush administration suspects that Pyongyang is developing nuclear arms.

The tension escalated in early December when Pyongyang announced it was restarting its nuclear facilities to produce electricity, saying that it was because the United States had halted fuel deliveries in violation of a 1994 agreement.

The Chinese foreign ministry repeated its stance that China hopes that the Korean Peninsula will be free of nuclear weapons and that peace and stability can be maintained.

(China Daily January 21, 2003)