China's UN envoy Liu Jieyi says despite North Korea's missile and nuclear tests, dialogue can be held with Pyongyang

China's Ambassador to the UN Liu Jieyi arrives for the Security Council meeting on North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch, February 13, 2017 at United Nations headquarters in New York. (Photos by AFP)

China's ambassador to the UN says despite North Korea's missile and nuclear tests, dialogue can be held with Pyongyang.

"There is no reason why dialogue is not taking place in the current situation... It takes political will," said Liu Jieyi following a UN Security Council meeting.

Liu's remarks directly contradict those by the US that insists it is only prepared to negotiate with the North if it halts its missile and nuclear tests.

He noted that dialogue had proved successful in the past while trying to dampen tensions with Pyongyang. "We don't see why dialogue cannot take place in the current situation now," he added.

People walk past a television screen showing a news report on North Korea’s Pukguksong-2 missile test, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, May 22, 2017. 

The UNSC meeting, held on the request of the United States, Japan and South Korea, was held one after the council released a unanimously-backed statement, that strongly censured North Korea’s latest missile test and urged the UN’s sanction committee to boost efforts towards implementing the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang.

On Sunday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced that the country’s leader Kim Jong-un had overseen the test-launch of a Pukguksong (Polaris)-2 ground-to-ground missile and “approved the deployment of this weapon system for action.”

The latest test came less than a week after the North test-fired a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile, which landed in the sea between North Korea and Japan on May 14.