Following up on the recent talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese leaders over pressing issues such as North Korea's fourth nuclear test, the top US and Chinese nuclear representatives held talks in Beijing last week, according to China's Foreign Ministry.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang declined to reveal the details of the meetings except to say that the nuclear envoys have agreed to map out follow-up measures on North Korea, which Kerry had discussed with Chinese leaders during his recent visit to Beijing.

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Lu said Sung Kim, the US special representative for North Korea policy and his Chinese counterpart, Wu Dawei, held talks in Beijing as Washington continues to pressure Beijing into supporting tougher sanctions on the belligerent North following its fourth nuclear test.

                                                       Close communications

"Since North Korea's latest nuclear test, the Chinese side has been in close communications with all relevant parties," Lu reportedly told reporters during a regular press briefing.

The spokesman said the talks were held on Thursday during the two-day visit of Kim to Beijing. Kim and Wu reportedly discussed follow-up matters after Kerry met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week Wednesday.

Although Kerry and Wang both agreed on the need to pass a new UN resolution condemning North Korea, Wang refused to impose tougher sanctions as a punishment against Pyongyang, reiterating China's stance that the new resolution should not 'provoke' the DPRK.

                                                          Korean Peninsula

Beijing, North Korea's closest ally and largest economic trade partner, has repeatedly declared that it has been exerting efforts to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons through talks and dialogues

Calls from the international community for Beijing to punish North Korea has been received in a lukewarm manner.

Analysts say China can not afford to punish North Korea because a collapse of the North Korean regime could threaten China's own security interests.

The US and South Korea have been pressuring China, North Korea's number one supplier of food and oil, to back tougher sanctions against DPRK but such calls have fallen on deaf ears. 

TagsChina and US nuclear envoys, North Korea, Korean peninsula, Chinese Foreign Ministry, US Secretary of State John Kerry