However, that prospect seems unlikely as North Korea has repeatedly said it will not abandon nuclear weapons while the United States insists North Korea must take meaningful steps on denuclearization before there can be talks.

The visit to Beijing by Choe Ryong-hae, a top North Korean military officer, is the most high-level contact between North Korea and China in about six months.

Ties have been hurt between the two supposed allies by the North’s third nuclear test in February, despite China’s disapproval, and by China agreeing to U.N. sanctions on the North in response and starting to put a squeeze on North Korean banks.

China was also alarmed by North Korea’s threats this year to wage nuclear war on South Korea and the United States in retaliation for the sanctions, fearing any conflict would inevitable have disastrous consequences for China.

Choe told Liu Yunshan, the Chinese Communist Party’s fifth-ranked leader, that Kim had sent him to China “to improve, consolidate and develop ties between China and North Korea”.

Choe was accompanied by a high-powered delegation on a trip that appeared to be a bid by North Korea to mend frayed relations with its most important economic and diplomatic backer.

“North Korea lauds China’s enormous efforts to maintain peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and push for a return to talks and consultations for the problems of the Korean peninsula, and is willing to accept China’s suggestion to have talks with all parties,” Choe told the Chinese official, according to China’s state broadcaster CCTV.

Liu, who is also China’s propaganda tsar, told the North Korean envoy that “peace and stability on the Korean peninsula accords with the interests of all countries in the region”.

“We hope that all sides uphold the aim of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, maintain peace and stability and the using of dialogue and consultation to resolve problems, take practical steps to ameliorate the tense situation … to restart six party talks as soon as possible and work hard for long-lasting peace and stability in northeast Asia and on the Korean peninsula.”

“CONCENTRATE ON THE ECONOMY”

China has repeatedly urged North Korea to return to the so-called six party talks process, aimed at denuclearization.

The United States and its allies believe the North violated a 2005 aid-for-denuclearization deal by conducting a nuclear test in 2006 and pursuing a uranium enrichment program that would give it a second path to a nuclear weapon in addition to its plutonium-based program.

Six-party aid-for-disarmament talks, involving the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China, collapsed in 2008 when the North walked away from the deal.

Repeated attempts by China to get North Korea to embark upon Chinese-style economic reforms and shift attention away from the military and bellicose actions have made little apparent progress.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said Choe had been taken to a Beijing economic zone, much in the same way China used to take late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to see modern Chinese factories on his swings through the world’s second-largest economy.

“North Korea hopes to concentrate on the economy and improve people’s livelihoods and is willing to create a peaceful foreign environment,” Choe told Liu.

Choe’s comments came on the second day of his trip to China. He has also met Wang Jiarui, head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, a frequent conduit for communication between the two sides.

Choe is one of the tight coterie of officials around Kim Jong-un, who has been in power for just over a year after succeeding his father, Kim Jong-il.

The envoy is a long-time political administrator and was surprisingly made a vice marshal in the army last year despite having no military background.

(Additional reporting by Langi Chiang; Editing by Robert Birsel)

The delegation led by Choe Ryong-hae, vice chairman of the country’s top military body, was the most senior to visit China since Kim’s kingmaker uncle Jang Song-thaek made the trip in August 2012.

Ties between Pyongyang and Beijing have been hurt by the North’s third nuclear test, carried out in February, and by China agreeing to U.N. sanctions on the North and starting to put a squeeze on North Korean banks.

North Korean state news agency KCNA said China’s ambassador to Pyongyang, who is seen as the closest of all foreign envoys to Kim Jong-un, saw the delegation off at the airport.

Choe’s first meeting in Beijing was with Wang Jiarui, head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, China’s Xinhua news agency said, without providing details.

The diplomatic move by North Korea came after Japan reached out to Pyongyang last week by sending a special envoy to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to hold talks over Japanese citizens abducted by the isolated and impoverished state.

Choe is one of the tight coterie of officials around Kim Jong-un, who has been in power for just over a year after succeeding his father.

He is a long-time political administrator and was surprisingly made a vice marshal in the army last year despite having no military background.

Jang’s trip in 2012 had been aimed at securing a visit for Kim to Beijing and to win investment for the North’s shattered economy, although it appeared to have failed, according to diplomats. Jang is seen as the most powerful official in North Korea after Kim.

“It is an important visit as he (Choe) is both a high-ranked official and coming as a special envoy of Kim Jong-un, and there have been no high level contacts between the two countries for such a long time,” said Jin Canrong, associate dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing.

BEIJING LIKELY TO SEEK RETURN TO NUCLEAR TALKS

Jin, a specialist on China-North Korea relations, said Beijing would once again urge Pyongyang to return to the so-called “Six Party Talks” process, aimed at denuclearization.

The talks included the North, China, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia and have been stalled since 2009 when North Korea conducted its second nuclear test.

“The Chinese people have been angered by North Korea’s provocations. Certainly one of China’s demands will be for North Korea to stop doing this,” said Jin.

As well as staging the country’s third nuclear test, Kim Jong-un presided over the launch of two long range rockets. These are banned by the United Nations due to concerns Pyongyang is testing technology to use in a long-range nuclear missile.

North Korea is almost entirely reliant on China for imports of fuel and food and since it closed an industrial zone on the border with South Korea, has few other outlets for its exports.

The North has traditionally attempted to play China off against the United States and appeared to be open to the possibility of a deal with Japan that irked both Seoul and Washington when Abe’s aide visited Pyongyang last week.

Yoshihide Suga, Abe’s cabinet secretary, told a news conference on Wednesday that Japan aimed to resume talks with North Korea as part of attempts to resolve the abduction issue.

“Since we are probing all the possibilities, that is naturally included,” Suga said.

Japan and North Korea last held government talks in November 2012, before the North’s last long-range missile launch in December and nuclear test in February.

Given the spike in tensions between Beijing and Pyongyang in the wake of the February nuclear test, it appeared Choe’s visit was unlikely to produce a meaningful accord.

A visit to Beijing for Kim Jong-un would be a major prize for the young leader.

“Jang Song-thaek came back with nothing from China. Since then not only has North Korea not changed, things have become worse,” said Lee Ji-sue, a North Korea expert at Myongji University in Seoul.

(Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in TOKYO; Editing by David Chance and Dean Yates)

“Too terrible, those Americans,” he mutters, standing at a war museum on the Chinese side of the North Korean border, pointing out the pictures of infected animals and insects which China and North Korea say the United States dropped to poison their enemies.

“We have been together with North Korea for over 60 years. They still need our help and we cannot abandon them now,” adds the Chinese businessman, offering his own commentary on why North Korea matters so much to China.

The war may have ended more than half a century ago, but its memory lives on and is promoted to millions in China, helping explain the emotional bond that ties China to North Korea’s reclusive, bellicose rulers, despite Chinese anger over their nuclear tests.

Looming on a hill over Dandong, a bustling Chinese city on the other side of the Yalu River from North Korea, is the museum to commemorate the “War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea”.

Popularly known as the “Resistance Museum”, laudatory signs heavy on propaganda in both Chinese and English proclaim an everlasting friendship between China and North Korea.

They certainly has the intended effect on Chinese visitors.

“The Americans are too hegemonistic! Too cruel!” said Qian Jingwei, a migrant worker from the poor Chinese province of Henan, visiting on a day off from working on a new cross-border special economic zone with North Korea.

“North Korea are our friends. We were taught this at school and can never forget that,” said Qian, whose brother nodded in agreement, having just completed a spin around the complex, complete with battlefield dioramas and old warplanes.

“LONG HISTORY”

War memories are front and center in Dandong, with statues in heroic poses of Chinese “volunteers” who fought with the North Koreans lining the city’s pleasant waterfront, across from which lie the run-down buildings of North Korea’s Sinuiju.

But it is the “Broken Bridge”, bombed in half by U.S. aircraft, that is the war’s most prominent reminder, sitting in the center of town next to a “Friendship Bridge” over which much of today’s bilateral trade is conducted.

For 27 yuan ($4.4) a ticket, tourists can walk on the half of the bridge that remains standing and is carefully preserved as a revolutionary monument, to the strains of piped-in revolutionary music.

Talk of cutting off North Korea in punishment for their nuclear tests or saber rattling sparks heated debate for one group of visitors.

“We have a long history of sacrifice together and so we have to support and help them,” said Li Li, whose father fought in the war, standing on the end of what’s left of the bridge.

Lao Wang isn’t having any of it though, expressing frustration with North Korea, just as some Chinese leaders have.

“They have no respect for our feelings. They want to drag us into a new war,” he said. “But we I suppose we have to live with them as you can’t choose your neighbors.”

($1 = 6.1650 Chinese yuan)

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

The sanctions were imposed after North Korea’s third nuclear
test on Feb. 12. China has said it wants the measures enforced,
but few analysts believe Beijing will take steps that hurt North
Korea as it is committed to a policy of engagement.

The sanctions, on top of those agreed after previous nuclear
tests, target the North’s attempts to ship and receive cargo
related to its banned nuclear and missile programmes, aim to
stop the flow of luxury goods to North Korea’s elite and tighten
financial curbs, including the illicit transfer of bulk cash.

Reuters spoke to more than a dozen Chinese trading firms
that do business with North Korea, mostly based in China’s
border city of Dandong through which as much as 80 percent of
the bilateral trade is conducted, and also in the port city of
Dalian. The companies are involved in goods ranging from
non-ferrous metals and car parts to clothing and food.

About half said they had noticed customs authorities taking
a closer look at shipments since the sanctions were put in
place, though others said trade with North Korea was generally
always more tightly monitored than with other countries.

“Look at all the trucks out there and you tell me if trade
has slowed,” said trader Liu Mingjin, pointing to a long line of
Chinese and North Korean trucks queuing at Dandong’s run-down
border post. “Customs may be taking a closer interest, but
there’s no impact on trade whatsoever,” added Liu, who imports
ginseng and exports pretty much anything North Korea wants,
including building materials.

That suggests that while China is expressing its growing
frustration with Pyongyang and its recent threats to wage war on
Seoul and Washington, it still believes in its right to conduct
normal trade with North Korea.

LEGITIMATE TRADE

John Park, a North Korea expert at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and the Harvard Kennedy School, said
China was exploiting a loophole in sanctions that allow
legitimate trade and aid. Under the measures, U.N. member states
are not barred from economic development or humanitarian
activities with North Korea.

“Forget the debate about China implementing sanctions. In
many cases Chinese authorities, (and) private Chinese firms
classify what they are doing as economic development,” he said.

That’s certainly the message from Dandong officials.

“Border trade (policy) is exactly the same as before -
there’s no difference,” said Yin Tong, head of the municipal
foreign trade and economic cooperation office. A second Dandong
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, agreed: “Trade
between China and North Korea is coordinated at the state level:
we don’t get to decide. And the situation hasn’t changed.”

China’s customs department referred questions about the
sanctions to the Foreign Ministry, which has repeatedly said
Beijing was committed to them. The ministry has refused to give
details on what China is doing to enforce sanctions, but says
China had the right to do legitimate trade with North Korea.

However, in a statement dated April 17, China’s Transport
Ministry said it expected all government departments to fully
follow the sanctions and ensure no transport of banned goods,
including luxury cars, jewellery and anything related to nuclear
weapons or guided missiles.

U.N. diplomats in New York said that up to now there was
nothing to suggest China had taken steps to implement the
sanctions aggressively. To be sure, they said all countries
needed time and that it would take months to gauge U.N. member
states’ commitment to the resolution.

One businessman who said Chinese inspections of goods shipped
to North Korea had tightened also said the recent tensions were
partly to blame. “The situation is tense, and we’re doing less
trade. Cargo inspections seem to have tightened, too,” said the
businessman, who asked to be identified by his family name Wang.

Another Dandong trader, Zeng Hongqun, said vehicle parts
appeared to be being targeted for Chinese customs checks, though
he was still able to export trucks in to the country. “Despite
customs taking a closer look, we remain busy. North Korea is an
old friend of China’s and we rely on them up here just as much
as they rely on us,” he said, waiting at the customs post to
send a new truck into North Korea.

DIPLOMATIC FRIEND

Some traders in Dalian said customs officials were paying
more attention, though this preceded the latest sanctions.

“Customs inspection on cargoes to North Korea has always
been quite strict,” said Zhou Jin, manager of Dalian Hengan
International Logistics Company, whose shipments can include
valves, pumps, sewage treatment equipment and ball bearings.
“But since the second half of last year, the customs started
inspecting every single one of our containers to North Korea,
and we’ve never seen this before.”

Still, the border around Dandong is relatively porous, which
smugglers exploit, though mostly they say for non-sensitive
goods such as rice and cigarettes. “I can go back and forward
with no problems,” said one border resident, who asked not to be
identified. “As long as you pay off the right officials in China
and North Korea, they turn a blind eye.”

The success of the new sanctions depends to a large extent
on China, U.N. diplomats have said. Beijing is the closest North
Korea has to a diplomatic friend, and accounts for at least
three-quarters of North Korea’s imports.

Bilateral trade dropped more than 7 percent to $1.3 billion
in January-March, with China’s imports from North Korea rising
2.5 percent to $590 million but exports down 13.8 percent to
$720 million – excluding fuel, food or other Chinese aid. Annual
trade is worth some $6 billion, a fraction of China’s trade with
South Korea which last year topped $230 billion.

China is the main way luxury goods get to North Korea. The
March 7 resolution gave examples of some items North Korea could
not import, from yachts and racing cars to luxury automobiles
and several types of gems and jewellery.

KEEPING THE POWER ON

China also supplies virtually all of North Korea’s external
energy needs – crude oil, diesel and jet fuel – much of it in
the form of off-the-books aid.

While Chinese data showed no exports of crude oil to North
Korea in February, deliveries resumed in March, with customs
figures showing 106,000 tonnes of supply. China
officially supplied 523,041 tonnes of crude oil last year.

The Ministry of Commerce appears to be delaying or possibly
cancelling an internal tender to supply North Korea with diesel
fuel, two oil trading sources said, while a person close to
state-owned Sinochem Group said jet fuel flows were normal.
China supplied North Korea with 42,251 tonnes of jet fuel last
year, according to customs data, and 31,050 tonnes of diesel.

Another trading source said coal imports from North Korea -
typically entering China through Dandong’s Donggang Port after
coming down the Yalu River or up the coast – were not affected.

Many Chinese companies are also involved in mining in North
Korea. A source at Wanxiang Resources, which has a copper mine
in Hyesan in North Korea’s Ryanggang province, said there had
been no orders from China to withdraw their workers, although
North Korean staff had been asked to attend more political
activities, which was hurting production.

“If the political situation worsens, the Chinese workers can
return very quickly since the mine is located 2-3 kms from the
border,” the source said.

Choi Hyun-ju, a Dandong-based North Korean official whose
job is to encourage investment in the North, said China had not
had a change of heart about its companies investing in his
country. “China’s government hasn’t been putting pressure on
us,” he said. “The situation is tense at the moment, but it
won’t always be this way. And the situation in North Korea is
not as scary as has been reported.”

The most opaque area of China’s enforcement of sanctions
will probably be related to illicit financial flows.

Chinese financial regulators had no comment in response to a
report on South Korea’s Yonhap news agency last month saying
Beijing had warned North Korean banks to stay within the remit
of their permitted operations in China or risk penalties.

The bank most under the microscope is the Foreign Trade
Bank, the North’s main foreign exchange bank. Washington
announced sanctions on the bank last month, saying it helped
fund Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. It has urged other countries
to do the same.

NO ISOLATION

To be sure, there have been calls in China to punish North
Korea by limiting or even removing trade and aid, led by
influential tabloid the Global Times, published by the Communist
Party’s official newspaper the People’s Daily.

Chinese have also taken to Sina Weibo, the country’s answer
to Twitter, to denounce North Korea’s young leader Kim Jong-un
for his warmongering, lampooning him as “Fatty Kim”.

But China will not cut North Korea off completely.

The country is a useful buffer from U.S. troops stationed in
South Korea, and Japan. And if China turned the screws too much
then North Korea could collapse – Beijing’s ultimate nightmare
scenario. Not only would that release a flood of refugees into
northeastern China, it would also raise the question of what
would happen to North Korea’s nuclear material.

China has also been pushing ahead with three special
economic zones with North Korea, hoping to tap low labour costs
across the border and encourage Pyongyang to see the benefits of
economic reform.

One of those is at Rason, 50 km (30 miles) across the North
Korean border, opposite China’s Jilin province. A Jilin
government official with knowledge of the zone’s development
said the recent tensions had shaken the confidence of some
Chinese companies which had wanted to invest there. However,
local authorities were still pushing ahead, the official said by
telephone from Changchun, capital of Jilin.

“Indeed some companies are starting to lose confidence, but
from the government and the (Rason) management committee’s point
of view, there is no change in policy,” he said.

“Senior leaders of the Jilin government have been trying to
soothe the concerns of some of those enterprises.”

(Additional reporting by Sally Huang, Hui Li, Niu Shuping,
Megha Rajagopalan and Chen Aizhu in BEIJING, Polly Yam and
Charlie Zhu in HONG KONG, John Ruwitch and Fayen Wong in
SHANGHAI, and Louis Charbonneau at the UNITED NATIONS. Editing
by Dean Yates and Ian Geoghegan)

Wang Zuoan, head of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, said there had been an explosion of religious belief in China along with the nation’s economic boom, which he attributed to a desire for reassurance in an increasingly complex world.

While religion could be a force for good in officially atheist China, it was important to ensure people were not mislead, he told the Study Times, a newspaper published by the Central Party School which trains rising officials.

“For a ruling party which follows Marxism, we need to help people establish a correct world view and to scientifically deal with birth, ageing, sickness and death, as well as fortune and misfortune, via popularizing scientific knowledge,” he said, in rare public comments on the government’s religious policy.

“But we must realize that this is a long process and we need to be patient and work hard to achieve it,” Wang added in the latest issue of the Study Times, which reached subscribers on Sunday.

“Religion has been around for a very long time, and if we rush to try to push for results and want to immediately ‘liberate’ people from the influence of religion, then it will have the opposite effect and push people in the opposite direction.”

About half of China’s religious followers are Christians or Muslims, with the other half Buddhists or Daoists, he said, admitting the real total number of believers was probably much higher than the official estimate of 100 million.

Wang did not address specific issues, such as what happens after the exiled spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism the Dalai Lama dies, testy relations with the Vatican or controls on Muslims in the restive Xinjiang region in the west.

Rights groups say that despite a constitutional guarantee of freedom of belief, the government exercises tight control, especially over Tibetans, Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang and Christians, many of whom worship in underground churches.

“LURE FOR UNREST”

Beijing also takes a hard line on what it calls “evil cults”, like banned spiritual group Falun Gong, who it accuses of spreading dangerous superstition.

Still, while religion was savagely repressed during the chaos of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, the government has taken a much more relaxed approach since embarking on landmark economic reforms some three decades ago.

The ruling Communist Party, which values stability above all else, has even tried to co-opt religion in recent years as a force for social harmony in a country where few believe in communism any more.

China had avoided the religious extremism which happened in some places with the collapse of the Soviet Union or the religious problems seen with immigrants in Europe and the United States, Wang added, something to be proud of.

Still, China could not rest on its laurels.

“Religion basically upholds peace, reconciliation and harmony … and can play its role in society,” Wang said.

“But due to various complex factors, religion can become a lure for unrest and antagonism. Looking at the state of religion in the world today, we must be very clear on this point.”

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

The earthquake occurred at 8.02 a.m. (0002 GMT) in Lushan county near Ya’an city and the epicentre had a depth of 12 km (7.5 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake was felt by residents in neighbouring provinces and in the provincial capital of Chengdu, causing many people to rush out of buildings, according to accounts on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service.

The official Xinhua news agency said 71 people had been confirmed dead with more than 2,200 injured, 147 of them seriously.

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang said all efforts must be put into rescuing victims to limit the death toll. Li was on his way to Ya’an, state media said.

“The current most urgent issue is grasping the first 24 hours since the quake’s occurrence, the golden time for saving lives,” Xinhua quoted Li as saying.

Xinhua said 6,000 troops were heading to the area to help with rescue efforts. State television CCTV said only emergency vehicles were being allowed into Ya’an, though Chengdu airport had reopened.

Most of the deaths were concentrated in Lushan, where water and electricity were cut off. Pictures on Chinese news sites showed toppled buildings and people in bloodied bandages being treated in tents outside the hospital, which appeared only lightly damaged.

Rescuers in Lushan had pulled 32 survivors out of rubble, Xinhua said. In villages closest to the epicentre, almost all low rise houses and buildings had collapsed, according to footage broadcast on state television.

“We are very busy right now, there are about eight or nine injured people, the doctors are handling the cases,” said a doctor at a Ya’an hospital who gave her family name as Liu.

The hospital was seeing head and leg injuries, she added.

“SHAKES AND TREMORS”

A resident in Chengdu, 140 km (85 miles) from Ya’an city, told Xinhua he was on the 13th floor of a building when he felt the quake. The building shook for about 20 seconds and he saw tiles fall from nearby buildings.

Ya’an is a city of 1.5 million people and is considered one of the birthplaces of Chinese tea culture. It is also the home to one of China’s main centres for protecting the giant panda.

“There are still shakes and tremors and our area is safe. The pandas are safe,” said a spokesman with Ya’an’s Bifengxia nature park, a tourism park that houses more than 100 pandas.

Shouts and screams were heard in the background while Reuters was on the telephone with the spokesman.

“There was just an aftershock, an aftershock, our office is safe,” he said.

Numerous aftershocks jolted the area, the largest of which was magnitude 5.1.

Sichuan is one of the four major natural-gas-producing provinces in China, and its output accounts for about 14 percent of the nation’s total.

Sinopec Group, Asia’s largest oil refiner, said its huge Puguang gas field was unaffected.

The U.S. Geological Survey initially put the magnitude at 7, but later revised it down.

The devastating May 2008 quake was 7.9 magnitude.

(Additional reporting by Melanie Lee and Lu Jianxin in SHANGHAI; Editing by Jonathan Standing and Robert Birsel)

The earthquake occurred at 8.02 a.m. (0002 GMT) in Lushan county near Ya’an city and the epicenter had a depth of 12 km (7.5 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake was felt by residents in neighboring provinces and in the provincial capital of Chengdu, causing many people to rush out of buildings, according to accounts on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service.

The official China News Service said 28 people had been confirmed dead. Other state media said about 100 were injured, four seriously.

State news agency Xinhua said 2,000 troops were heading to the area to help with rescue efforts. State television CCTV said only emergency vehicles were being allowed into Ya’an, though Chengdu airport had reopened.

A resident in Chengdu, 140 km (85 miles) from Ya’an city, told Xinhua he was on the 13th floor of a building when he felt the quake. The building shook for about 20 seconds and he saw tiles fall from nearby buildings.

Ya’an is a city of 1.5 million it is considered one of the birthplaces of Chinese tea culture and the home to one of China’s main centers for protecting the giant panda.

Numerous aftershocks jolted the area, the largest of which was magnitude 5.1.

The U.S. Geological Survey initially put the magnitude at 7, but later revised it down.

The devastating 2008 quake was 7.9 magnitude.

(Additional reporting by Melanie Lee and Lu Jianxin in SHANGHAI; Editing by Jonathan Standing and Ron Popeski)

China is uneasy with what the United States has called the “rebalancing” of forces as Washington winds down the war in Afghanistan and renews its attention in the Asia-Pacific.

China says the policy has emboldened Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam in longstanding territorial disputes.

China faces “multiple and complicated security threats” despite its growing influence, the Ministry of Defence said in its annual white paper, adding that the U.S. strategy meant “profound changes” for the region.

“There are some countries which are strengthening their Asia Pacific military alliances, expanding their military presence in the region and frequently make the situation there tenser,” the ministry said in the 40-page document, in a clear reference to the United States.

Such moves “do not accord with the developments of the times and are not conducive towards maintaining regional peace and stability”, ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told reporters.

The official People’s Liberation Army Daily went further, saying in a commentary on Monday China needed to beef up its defenses to deal with a hostile West bent on undermining it.

“Hostile Western forces have intensified their strategy to westernize and split China, and employed every possible means to contain and control our country’s development,” it said.

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry defended the re-orientation of U.S. foreign policy towards Asia as he ended a trip to the region dominated by concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program.

While China has been angered by North Korea’s behavior, including its third nuclear test in February, it has also made clear it considers U.S. displays of force in response to Pyongyang’s behavior to be a worrisome development.

China is North Korea’s most important diplomatic and financial backer – the two fought together in the 1950-53 Korean war – although the ministry’s Yang would not be drawn on the subject aside from repeating a call for peace and dialogue.

JAPAN “MAKING TROUBLE”

China’s own military moves have worried the region, too.

China unveiled another double-digit rise in military expenditure last month, to 740.6 billion yuan ($119 billion) for 2013, and is involved in protracted and often ugly disputes over a series of islands in the East and South China Seas.

“On the issues concerning China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, some neighboring countries are taking actions that complicate or exacerbate the situation, and Japan is making trouble over the Diaoyu Islands issue,” the white paper said.

The dispute with Japan over the uninhabited islands, which China calls the Diaoyu and Japan calls Senkaku, has escalated in recent months to the point where China and Japan have scrambled fighter jets and patrol ships shadow each other.

The waters around the islands in the East China Sea are rich fishing grounds and have potentially huge oil and gas reserves.

Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines also have conflicting claims with China in parts of the South China Sea. China lays claim to almost the whole of the sea, which is criss-crossed by crucial shipping lanes.

The U.S. shift comes as China boosts military spending and builds submarines, surface ships and anti-ship ballistic missiles as part of its naval modernization, and has tested emerging technology aimed at destroying missiles in mid-air.

China has repeatedly said the world has nothing to fear from its military spending, which it says is needed for legitimate defensive purposes in a complex and changing world, and that the sums spent pale in comparison with U.S. defence expenditure.

(Additional reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Paul Tait)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met China’s top leaders
in a bid to persuade them to push reclusive North Korea, whose
main diplomatic supporter is Beijing, to scale back its
belligerence and, eventually, return to nuclear talks.

Visiting Beijing for the first time as secretary of state,
Kerry has made no secret of his desire to see China take a more
active stance towards North Korea, which in recent weeks has
threatened nuclear war against the United States and South
Korea.

Kerry and China’s top diplomat, State Councillor Yang
Jiechi, said both countries supported the goal of denuclearizing
the Korean peninsula.

“We are able, the United States and China, to underscore our
joint commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula
in a peaceful manner,” Kerry told reporters, sitting next to
Yang at a state guesthouse in western Beijing.

But North Korea has repeatedly said it will not abandon
nuclear weapons which it described on Friday as its “treasured”
guarantor of security.

Yang said China’s stance on maintaining peace and stability
on the peninsula was clear and consistent, repeating phrasing
used by the Foreign Ministry since the crisis began.

“We maintain that the issue should be handled and resolved
peacefully through dialogue and consultation. To properly
address the Korea nuclear issue serves the common interests of
all parties. It is also the shared responsibility of all
parties,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.

“China will work with other relevant parties, including the
United States, to play a constructive role in promoting the
six-party talks and balanced implementation of the goals set out
in the Sept. 19 joint statement of 2005.”

The United States and its allies believe the North violated
the 2005 aid-for-denuclearization deal by conducting a nuclear
test in 2006 and pursuing a uranium enrichment programme that
would give it a second path to a nuclear weapon in addition to
its plutonium-based programme.

Six-party aid-for-disarmament talks, involving the two
Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China,
collapsed in 2008 when the North walked away from the deal.

Kerry declined to comment on what specifically China may do
to push for a peaceful solution on North Korea, saying only that
they had discussed all possibilities.

At a news conference in Seoul on Friday and in a U.S.-South
Korean joint statement issued on Saturday, Kerry signalled the
U.S. preference for diplomacy, but stressed North Korea must
take “meaningful” steps on denuclearization.

“We don’t want to get into a threat for threat or … some
kind of confrontational language here. There’s been enough of
that,” Kerry said in Beijing.

If North Korea got rid of its nuclear capabilities, then the
United States would have no reason to maintain recently deployed
defensive capabilities – such as a missile defence system sent
to Guam – he said.

“Now, obviously, if the threat disappears, i.e. North Korea
denuclearizes, the same imperative does not exist at that point
in time for us to have to have that kind of robust, forward
leaning posture of defence.”

The Pentagon has in recent weeks responded to the North
Korean threats by announcing plans to position two Aegis
guided-missile destroyers in the western Pacific and a Terminal
High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile defence system to
Guam.

‘CONSTRUCTIVE’ TALKS

As the North’s main trading partner, financial backer and
the closest thing it has to a diplomatic ally, China had a
unique ability to use its leverage against the impoverished,
isolated state, Kerry said in Seoul before leaving for Beijing.

China, which sided with North Korea in the 1950-53 civil war
against the U.S.-backed South, has always been reluctant to
apply pressure on Pyongyang, fearing instability if the North
were to implode and send floods of refugees into China.

It has also looked askance at U.S. military drills in South
Korea.

China’s Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that
Washington had itself been “fanning the flames” on the Korean
peninsula with its shows of force.

“It keeps sending more fighters, bombers and missile-defence
ships to the waters of East Asia and carrying out massive
military drills with Asian allies in a dramatic display of
preemptive power,” it said.

Chinese state television quoted Premier Li Keqiang as
telling Kerry that rising tensions on the Korean peninsula were
in nobody’s interests, in apparent reference to both Washington
and Pyongyang to dial down the war of words.

“All sides must bear responsibility for maintaining regional
peace and stability and be responsible for the consequences,”
the television report paraphrased Li as saying.

“Disturbances and provocation on the peninsula and
regionally will harm the interests of all sides, which is like
lifting a rock only to drop it on one’s feet.”

Still, U.S. officials believe China’s rhetoric on North
Korea has begun to shift, pointing to a recent speech by China’s
Xi in which – without referring explicitly to Pyongyang – he
said no country “should be allowed to throw a region and even
the whole world into chaos for selfish gain”.

Kerry’s Asia trip, which includes a stop in Tokyo on Sunday
before flying home on Monday, takes place after weeks of shrill
North Korean threats of war since the imposition of new U.N.
sanctions in response to its third nuclear test in February.

North Korean television made no mention of Kerry’s visit and
devoted most of its reports to preparations for celebrations on
Monday marking the birth date of state founder Kim Il-Sung.

But Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Workers’ Party’s newspaper,
issued a fresh denunciation of joint U.S.-South Korean military
exercises, saying: “If the enemies dare provoke (North Korea)
while going reckless, it will immediately blow them up with an
annihilating strike with the use of powerful nuclear means.”

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, quoting a government
source, said North Korea had not moved any of its mobile missile
launchers for the past two days after media reports that as many
as five missiles had been moved into place on the country’s east
coast. It said this suggested no launches were imminent.

(Additional reporting by Terril Yue Jones in BEIJING and Ronald
Popeski in SEOUL; Editing by Nick Macfie and Vicki Allen)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met China’s top leaders in a bid to persuade them to exert pressure on North Korea, whose main diplomatic supporter is Beijing, to scale back its belligerence and, eventually, return to nuclear talks.

Before travelling to Beijing for the first time as secretary of state, Kerry had made no secret of his desire to see China take a more active stance towards North Korea, which in recent weeks has threatened nuclear war against the United States and South Korea.

Kerry and China’s top diplomat, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, said both countries supported the goal of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.

“We are able, the United States and China, to underscore our joint commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful manner,” Kerry told reporters, standing next to Yang at a state guesthouse in western Beijing.

“We agreed that this is critically important for the stability of the region and indeed for the world and for all of our nonproliferation efforts.”

But North Korea has repeatedly said it will not abandon nuclear weapons which it described on Friday as its “treasured” guarantor of security.

Yang said China’s stance on maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula was clear and consistent.

“We maintain that the issue should be handled and resolved peacefully through dialogue and consultation. To properly address the Korea nuclear issue serves the common interests of all parties. It is also the shared responsibility of all parties,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.

“China will work with other relevant parties, including the United States, to play a constructive role in promoting the six-party talks and balanced implementation of the goals set out in the September 19 joint statement of 2005.”

At a news conference in Seoul on Friday and in a U.S.-South Korean joint statement issued on Saturday, Kerry signalled the U.S. preference for diplomacy to end the tension, but stressed North Korea must take “meaningful” steps on denuclearization.

The United States and its allies believe the North violated the 2005 aid-for-denuclearization deal by conducting a nuclear test in 2006 and pursuing a uranium enrichment programme that would give it a second path to a nuclear weapon in addition to its plutonium-based programme.

“CONSTRUCTIVE” TALKS

As the North’s main trading partner, financial backer and the closest thing it has to a diplomatic ally, China has a unique ability to use its leverage against the impoverished, isolated state, Kerry said in Seoul before leaving for Beijing.

Kerry earlier in the day characterised his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as “constructive and forward-leaning”, though he did not elaborate.

Beijing, which sided with North Korea in the 1950-53 civil war against the U.S.-backed South, has been reluctant to apply pressure on Pyongyang, fearing the instability that could result if the North were to implode and send floods of refugees into China.

It has also looked askance at U.S. military drills in South Korea.

Xinhua said in a commentary that Washington had itself been “fanning the flames” on the Korean peninsula with its shows of force.

“It keeps sending more fighters, bombers and missile-defence ships to the waters of East Asia and carrying out massive military drills with Asian allies in a dramatic display of preemptive power,” it said.

Chinese state television quoted Premier Li Keqiang as telling Kerry that rising tensions on the Korean peninsula were in nobody’s interests, in apparent reference to both Washington and Pyongyang to dial down the war of words.

“All sides must bear responsibility for maintaining regional peace and stability and be responsible for the consequences,” the television report paraphrased Li as saying.

“Disturbances and provocation on the peninsula and regionally will harm the interests of all sides, which is like lifting a rock only to drop it on one’s feet.”

Still, U.S. officials believe China’s rhetoric on North Korea has begun to shift, pointing to a recent speech by China’s Xi in which – without referring explicitly to Pyongyang – he said no country “should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain”.

Kerry’s visit to Asia, which will include a stop in Tokyo on Sunday, takes place after weeks of shrill North Korean threats of war since the imposition of new U.N. sanctions in response to its third nuclear test in February.

North Korean television made no mention of Kerry’s visit and devoted most of its reports to preparations for Monday’s celebrations marking the birth date of state founder Kim Il-Sung.

These included a numerous floral tributes and grandiose flower show, foreign visitors seeing the sights of the capital ahead of the festivities and the unveiling of a monument in a provincial town.

But Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Workers’ Party’s newspaper, issued a fresh denunciation of joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, saying: “The outbreak of nuclear war has now become a fait accompli, owing to the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces.

“If the enemies dare provoke (North Korea) while going reckless, it will immediately blow them up with an annihilating strike with the use of powerful nuclear means.”

However, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, quoting a government source, said North Korea had not moved any of its mobile missile launchers for the past two days after media reports that as many as five missiles had been moved into place on the country’s east coast.

Yonhap said there had been no signs of any movement by the mobile launchers since Thursday, “or that missile launches are imminent”. (Additional reporting byTerril Tue Jones, and Ron Popeski in SEOUL; Editing by Nick Macfie)