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Updated: Sep 02, 2017 19:45 IST

China says its foreign minister is advising Japan not to impose sanctions unilaterally on North Korea after it launched a test missile that flew over Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean.

The test-firing on Tuesday has intensified fear and reignited a debate in Japan about revising its defence plan after decades of pursuing more pacifist policies. A statement from China’s foreign ministry on Saturday says the minister also urged his Japanese counterpart a day earlier not to consider unilateral sanctions in response.

Foreign minister Wang Yi said “unilateral sanctions are not in line with the spirit of the (UN) Security Council resolutions, and there is no basis in international law for them, (therefore) Japan should not make a misjudgment.”