China praises ROK, DPRK over planned summit

Beijing welcomed news that Seoul and Pyongyang set a date for their leaders to meet and appreciated their efforts for that on Thursday.

Officials of the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea agreed Thursday to hold the planned summit between their leaders on April 27 in the truce village of Panmunjom.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a news conference that China is always happy to see dialogue between the two sides to improve mutual relations and promote reconciliation and cooperation.

"It serves the common interests of both sides and will ease tensions on the peninsula as well as advance regional peace and stability,” Lu said.

Lu noted that dialogue has once again become the main theme of the Korean Peninsula issue due to positive changes in the situation on the peninsula since this year.

"It is obvious to all that China has always insisted on and promoted dialogue on the issue,” he said, adding that China hopes to maintain the momentum of dialogue and peace.

China calls for relevant parties to support the improvement of inter-Korean relations, and to jointly make concrete efforts to facilitate peace and talks that push forward denuclearization of the peninsula and political settlement of the issue, he added.