China sought on Saturday to cool South Korea's exasperation with Pyongyang, which is widely believed to have torpedoed one of the South's warships two months ago, killing 46 sailors, Reuters reported. Officials are being tight-lipped about blame until the result of an investigation into the sinking of the Cheonan is announced next week. In the South, unofficially there is little doubt that its isolated neighbour attacked the navy corvette near their disputed sea border in March. "We explained where the investigations are at the current stage," Kim Young-sun, South Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said after talks between the Chinese and South Korean foreign ministers. "The Chinese side commented that it had expressed its condolences for the unfortunate incident on several occasions in the past and listened to our explanations." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said all sides must exercise "calm and restrain to appropriately deal with the issues concerned," Xinhua said. The talks were held on the sidelines of an East Asia conference between the top diplomats from China, Japan and South Korea. -- SPA
