BEIJING: North Korea should accept the return of international nuclear watchdog agency inspectors as a step towards defusing tensions on the Korean peninsula, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, told a regular news briefing that Beijing was aware of the reports of a visit to Pyongyang by Bill Richardson, governor of the US state of New Mexico, who said on Tuesday that North Korea would let International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors into the country to ensure it was not processing uranium to highly enriched levels. 

North Korea stepped back from confrontation over military drills by South Korea on Monday and made the new offer on nuclear inspections, drawing a cautious response from Seoul and Washington.