Tokyo—Beijing opposes North Korea’s nuclear and missile development, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday, hours after Pyongyang test-launched a ballistic missile from a submarine towards Japan.
Foreign ministers from Japan, China and South Korea held their first talks in more than a year Wednesday to find common ground on how to deal with North Korea.
The apparently successful launch, which Japan said marked the first time a North Korean sub-launched missile had entered its air defense identification zone, was likely to top the agenda.
“China is opposed to North Korea’s nuclear and missile development process and is opposed to any actions that trigger tensions on the Korean peninsula,” Wang told reporters after a meeting with the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea.
Meanwhile, China has unveiled illustrations of a Mars probe and rover it aims to send to the Red Planet at the end of the decade in a mission that faces “unprecedented” challenges, state media said Wednesday.
China, which is pouring billions into its space program and working to catch up with the US and Europe, announced in April it aims to send a spacecraft “around 2020” to orbit Mars, land and deploy the rover.
Zhang Rongqiao, chief architect of the project, said Tuesday they were targeting July or August of that year for the launch, the Xinhua news agency reported.
“The challenges we face are unprecedented,” the report quoted him as saying.
A Long March-5 carrier rocket will be dispatched from the Wenchang space launch centre in the southern island province of Hainan, Xinhua said, citing Ye Peijian, a mission consultant.
The lander will separate from the orbiter at the end of a journey of around seven months and touch down near the Martian equator, where the rover will explore the surface, it said.
The 200-kilogram (441 pounds) rover has six wheels and four solar panels, and will operate for around 92 days, according to Xinhua and other Chinese media reports.