U.S. urges China to scold North Korea on attacks

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration urged China to press North Korea to halt provocative actions against South Korea, after an artillery attack on the South that the United States called a "premeditated" violation of the truce that ended the Korean War.

As the isolated North's only ally and main economic partner, China plays a "pivotal" role in reducing tensions and has a duty to tell Pyongyang that deliberate acts "specifically intended to inflame tensions in the region" are not acceptable, the State Department said.

"China is pivotal in moving North Korea in a fundamentally different direction," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters. "We expect China to be clear, like we are, as to where the responsibility for the current situation, the current tension lies. This is something that we feel strongly about."

He said U.S. diplomats had delivered that message to Chinese officials in Washington and Beijing in the aftermath of Tuesday's North Korean artillery attack on a South Korean island that killed two South Korean troops and two civilians and aggravated tensions between the rival Koreas.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to discuss the attack and the response to it by telephone with China's foreign minister, Crowley said.

China said yesterday that it was "highly concerned" about the artillery exchange and urged restraint.

China "feels pain and regret about an incident causing deaths and property losses and is worried about the developments," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement.