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China Calls for Compromise With North Korea

Wants U.S. and Pyongyang to de-escalate tensions.

China on Wednesday suggested that North Korea could halt its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the U.S. stopping military drills with South Korea. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi compared the escalating confrontation as a dangerous collision waiting to happen, with “two accelerating trains, coming toward each other with neither side willing to give way,” the Associated Press reported. “Our priority now is to flash the red light and apply the brakes on both trains,” Wang said, adding that North Korea should suspend nuclear and missile activities to defuse the crisis. South Korea and the U.S., in turn, should halt their military drills, he said. “This suspension-for-suspension can help us break out of the security dilemma and bring the parties back to the negotiating table,” he said. North Korea has lashed out at Washington for the joint military drills underway on the Korean Peninsula with South Korean and U.S. forces, saying it views them as preparations for an invasion. This week, Pyongyang caused alarm in Japan and South Korea with its latest test-launch of ballistic missiles, a test that the country’s state-run media later said was a practice run for striking U.S. military bases in Japan.