Elementary school students hide under desks during an evacuation drill in the Japanese coastal city of Wajima on Wednesday, in the wake of repeated missile launches by North Korea. Similar drills have been held across the nation since March. Photo: CFP

China on Wednesday reminded relevant parties to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions, which do not only include putting pressure on Pyongyang using sanctions but also peaceful and diplomatic means to resolve the issue.



The statement comes following British Prime Minister Teresa May's demand that China do more to stop North Korea from practicing provocative missile tests.



Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a press briefing on Wednesday that the UN statement included two messages - to take effective measures to stop North Korean nuclear tests and to solve the Korean Peninsula issue through diplomacy, which are of equal importance.



"All parties should avoid statements or actions which may aggravate the situation … we noticed that some countries want to profit from the troubled situation … being the loudest to yell on imposing sanctions but holding back on negotiations," Hua said.



They do not want to take any responsibility but hope to share the fruits, which is not the attitude of a responsible country, she said.



"It has become a vicious cycle that the US and its allies - South Korea and Japan - continue pressuring North Korea while the latter launches more missiles as a response. If this situation continues, clashes are inevitable," Lü Chao, a research fellow at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.



Lü said that by saying that it would launch more missiles, North Korea wants to draw the international community's attention and pressure the US into acknowledging it as a nuclear-weapon state, which is not something the US would agree to.



For the first time, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the Tuesday launch from Pyongyang, and he said more tests are needed with the Pacific in mind as the target, the North's KCNA news agency said on Wednesday.



Trump responded to the latest North Korean missile launch via Twitter on Wednesday, that "The US has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!"



British Prime Minister Theresa May, said that the UK's focus remained on joint international efforts to limit Pyongyang's missile program, saying China should do more to assist this, the Guardian reported.



The UN condemned North Korea's "outrageous" launch of a ballistic missile over Japan, demanding that Pyongyang halt its weapons program but holding back on any threat of new sanctions, Reuters reported on Wednesday.



"Faced with a deadlock on the Korean Peninsula, all parties need to adopt new ways to solve the problem, as it is a fact that North Korea has acquired nuclear weapons and its nuclear technologies have advanced," Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.



Da said that the international community could consider offering a guarantee to North Korea on national security through international laws and then persuade it to freeze nuclear weapons.



“As for now, China’s ‘suspension for suspension’ – the US to suspend its military exercises with South Korea in return for the suspension by North Korea of its nuclear and missile activities – is the best way to ease tensions in the area,” Lü said.