AKIPRESS.COM - China appreciates North Korea’s “important efforts” to ease tension on the Korean peninsula, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi told the North’s foreign minister on Tuesday, hours after he called on all sides to stay focused on talks, Reuters reported.

China has traditionally been secretive North Korea’s closest ally, though ties had been frayed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and missiles and Beijing’s backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response.

But in late March Beijing vowed to uphold its friendship with its isolated neighbor and won a pledge from Kim to denuclearize the peninsula during a meeting with President Xi Jinping.