China's top legislator Wu Bangguo told Japanese lawmakers Friday that the current standoff over North Korea's nuclear program must ultimately be solved in talks between North Korea and the United States, according to a legislator who attended the meeting, according to Kyodo. Wu, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, also told the group including Ichiro Ozawa, head of Japan's largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan, the crisis should be solved ''peacefully, in a calm manner,'' the legislator said. North Korea has demanded bilateral talks with the United States, but Washington has maintained it will only hold negotiations in the context of the six-party talks. The six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia have been stalled for almost a year, with Pyongyang refusing to return to the negotiating table unless the United States lifts sanctions it imposed on a Macao-based bank suspected of laundering money and counterfeiting for North Korea. The United States has rejected that demand, saying the sanctions are a law enforcement matter that should not be linked to the nuclear talks. In a meeting earlier in the day, a key Chinese Communist Party official told the lawmakers that China was disappointed with North Korea's Oct. 9 nuclear test, according to another legislator. Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the party's Central Committee, also said China wants to avoid a worsening of the standoff after the nuclear test, the lawmaker said. Wang, who has visited North Korea numerous times, said Beijing supports a U. N. Security Council resolution against North Korea's nuclear test as Pyongyang went ahead with it ignoring warnings from the international community, according to the lawmaker. China, North Korea's traditional ally and main aid benefactor, took the unusual move of supporting the resolution that paves the way for diplomatic and economic sanctions against North Korea.
