China urges easing of tension after North Korea restarted nuclear reactor

China called for greater international effort on Thursday to ease tension on the Korean Peninsula after South Korea's spy agency confirmed this week that North Korea has restarted its plutonium-producing reactor. China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, however, sidestepped a question about whether the North's restarting of its plutonium reactor at its main nuclear complex of Yongbyon would be in violation of United Nations sanctions. "China has been following relevant reports," Hua told reporters during a press briefing when asked about the North's restarting of its 5-megawatt reactor, a move that may give the country more fissile fuel to make bombs. "China will continue sticking to the objective of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, as well as and maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula," Hua said. "Under current circumstances, we call on all relevant parties to do more to ease tension and contribute to the denuclearization of the peninsula rather than the other way around," Hua said, apparently referring to the United States and South Korea. As part of an aid-for-disarmament deal with the U.S., North Korea mothballed the graphite-modulated reactor in the mid-2000s, but it announced in April that it will bring the facility back in operation, insisting that it has become a nuclear weapons state. The plutonium reactor in Yongbyon has long been at the center of international focus as it is believed to have been used by the North to obtain weapons-grade plutonium to make bombs in the 1990s and 2000s.