Cui to US: Follow DPRK sanctions — talk

China's envoy to Washington is urging the US to do more to resolve the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, stressing that UN sanctions on Pyongyang also call for dialogue and peace talks.

Hours after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea launched a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean on Friday, Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai said the US "should be doing much more than [it is] now", so that there's real, effective international cooperation on the Peninsula issue.

"Everybody else will have to do their share; they cannot leave this issue to China alone," Cui said at a National Day reception Friday night in Washington.

The US should refrain from issuing more threats. Instead, it should do more to find effective ways to resume dialogue and negotiations, Cui said.

The ambassador's remarks came at a time when the DPRK's latest missile test has drawn condemnation from the United Nations, and refueled talk of a military option by the Trump administration, which has also asked China to increase pressure on the DPRK, partly by cutting oil shipments to Pyongyang.

China responded by saying that it has done its best, and the initiators of the trouble should end it, according to China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying.

Asked about possible oil cuts to the DPRK, Cui told reporters, "We are fully prepared to implement all the Security Council resolutions — no more, no less."

Cui did say that China will never recognize the DPRK as a nuclear state and opposes nuclear weapons anywhere on the Korean Peninsula and beyond, including Japan and Taiwan.

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2375 last Monday to respond to the DPRK's sixth nuclear test, conducted on Sept 3.

Cui said the resolution is a shared responsibility for all parties.

"We need to be clear that the latest UN resolution not only sanctions DPRK's nuclear activities but also calls for the reopening of dialogue and resolving the issue through consultations," Cui said. "The resolution should be implemented comprehensively."

At UN headquarters in New York on Friday, Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia also called on the US and others to implement the "political and diplomatic solutions" that are provided for in the latest sanctions resolution.

"Without implementing this, we also will consider it as a non-compliance with the resolution," Nebenzia said, according to Reuters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron also agreed in a phone call on Friday that resuming direct talks with the DPRK was the only way to resolve tensions over its nuclear program, according to a statement from the Kremlin.