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China turned down a U.S. request to cut off oil supplies to North Korea as a way of pressuring Pyongyang into rejoining stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks, but signaled it would consider blocking some imports, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
The paper quoted U.S. officials as saying Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill raised the idea of a "technical" interruption of oil shipments to North Korea when he visited China on March 26, but Beijing refused saying a shutdown of oil supplies could damage pipelines. China's director of Korea affairs Yang Xiyu complained the U.S. was "focused on too narrow a range of tools for China to influence Pyongyang." However, the daily said Chinese officials suggested suspending food shipments would be the most effective way to pressure the North, and hinted they would consider expanding a list of goods North Korea cannot import.
Meanwhile, Taku Yamasaki, a special advisor to the Japanese prime minister, said Friday that Beijing told him Tokyo must convince Washington to allow North Korea to save face. Kyodo News quoted Yamasaki as saying he was told by Wang Jiarui, the foreign affairs chief of the Chinese Communist Party, in Beijing on Friday his government also hoped Tokyo would work a little harder to get the six-party talks back on track.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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