US looks to China as talks begin on North Korea
The US envoy for North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, met South Korean officials in Seoul before heading to China.
Washington hopes talks on dismantling North Korea's nuclear work can start soon, though a breakthrough may prove elusive.
Tension on the Korean peninsula has spiked to some of its highest levels since the 1950-53 Korean War after last year's sinking of a Southern ship which killed 46 sailors, an exchange of artillery fire, nuclear revelations and threats of war.
President Barack Obama's national security adviser met China's foreign minister on Tuesday in Washington and stressed the need to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons work and "avoid destabilizing behavior," the White House said.
China and the United States must get parties back to talks and present ways to soothe tension, Seoul's JoongAng Daily said.
"A war in the region would be catastrophic for not only the two Koreas, but their respective allies, the United States and China," it said in an editorial.
In Seoul, US envoy Bosworth met South Korea's foreign minister and nuclear negotiator. Bosworth does not appear to be in the region to unveil a US proposal to get the North back to negotiations, but said he is collecting views from all sides.
Consultations are likely to focus on whether to restart disarmament-for-aid talks involving the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, China and Russia.
Asked whether the United States was putting pressure on Seoul, Bosworth said: "Never." He gave no more comments. He was due in China later on Wednesday and would be in Japan on Thursday.
Speaking after his meeting with Bosworth, South Korea's foreign minister sounded a cautious note about whether the six-party talks could restart, calling them a "useful negotiating tool" for disarming North Korea.
"But the right conditions, including North-South dialogue are needed for there to be real progress," Kim Sung-Hwan was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency.
"It depends on the North's behavior whether it will choose path of conflict or peace."
In recent days, all sides have suggested they are willing to restart the six-party talks which collapsed more than two years ago when North Korea walked out.
The North is keen to return to the negotiating table where in the past it has won substantial aid after ratcheting up tension.
"The Korean nation should defuse the confrontation between the north and the south at an early date," North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said on Wednesday, according to comments carried by state news agency KCNA.
Relations between the rival Koreas could not improve "as long as the said relations remain in the state of confrontation and on the brink of war without dialogue, contact and cooperation."
Analysts say North Korea's aggressive actions in 2010, and China's protection of it from serious consequences, left Washington, Seoul and Tokyo more closely aligned in policy than ever before, which may make it easier for them to approach Pyongyang.
Still, observers question whether the North, which has tested nuclear devices twice in recent years, will be prepared to give up its atomic work which it sees as a cornerstone of a "military first" policy, and a powerful bargaining chip.
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