UNITED NATIONS, March 13: China said on Thursday it was blocking major powers from discussing the North Korea crisis at the United Nations, saying it was pushing instead for a dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.

Council diplomats said the United States, backed by France and Britain, has been pressing for the Security Council’s five permanent members to get together to draft a council statement condemning North Korea for failing to meet its international obligations to prevent the spread of nuclear arms.

However, China has objected to such a meeting, the diplomats said. The 15-nation council’s permanent members are the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China.

China’s U.N. Ambassador, Wang Yingfan, said Beijing was blocking a meeting because it believed a solution lay in head-to-head talks between Washington and Pyongyang rather than in the Security Council.

“We do see the possibility that we could bring the parties together. We just wish to have a dialogue,” Wang told reporters.

North Korea has in recent months triggered a confrontation with Washington by taking a series of steps apparently aimed at reviving its mothballed nuclear weapons program.

It has become the first country to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, kicked out U.N. inspectors and shut down U.N. surveillance cameras at its Yongbyon nuclear facilities, capable of producing plutonium for nuclear bombs.

The United States has called for international pressure to convince North Korea to reverse these steps and again adhere to its nonproliferation requirements. It wants the Security Council to issue a statement criticizing Pyongyang and urging it to come back into compliance, diplomats said.

But North Korea says the crisis can be resolved only through bilateral talks with Washington that would lead to a new nonaggression pact between the two nations.

The crisis was referred to the Security Council last month by the governing board of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The council has the power to punish nations for violating international treaties and U.N. rules aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.

But North Korea has warned that it would view a decision by the council to punish it with economic sanctions as a “declaration of war.”—Reuters