China holds back from condemning Pyongyang

CHINA resisted pressure yesterday from South Korea and Japan to censure North Korea publicly for the sinking of a warship, calling only for regional tensions over the incident to be defused.

Host President Lee Myung-Bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama teamed up at the two-day summit to nudge China’s premier Wen Jiabao to declare Pyongyang responsible for the sinking of the South Korean corvette.

However, Wen gave no sign China is ready to back UN Security Council action against its ally over the sinking, which cost 46 lives.