December 7, 2025
World
World
LOS ANGELES, Dec 7 — Spectacular lava fountains burst from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano on Saturday, US volcanologists said, nearly a year after one of the world’s most active volcanoes began its latest eruptive phase.
BEIJING, Sept 29 — China is seeking closer cooperation with North Korea and urged Pyongyang to join hands in opposing hegemony, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his North Korean counterpart in remarks seen as aimed at the United States.
Wang met North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui in Beijing yesterday, weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s rare visit to China to deepen bilateral ties.
“Maintaining, consolidating, and advancing China–DPRK relations has always been the unwavering strategic policy of the Chinese government,” Wang said, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.
He added that China was ready to enhance coordination with North Korea in regional and global affairs, oppose “all forms of hegemonism,” and safeguard their shared interests as well as international fairness and justice — a pointed reference to Washington, Beijing’s chief rival.
North Korea’s state news agency KCNA reported today that both ministers reached “complete consensus” on a range of issues, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
Despite tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, China and North Korea have remained close. Earlier this month, Kim Jong Un stood alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping at a massive military parade in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
China remains a key political, economic and diplomatic lifeline for the isolated state, with both countries united in their opposition to the United States.
Kim has signalled willingness to resume dialogue with Washington if it drops demands for North Korea to abandon its nuclear arsenal, which Pyongyang defends as a deterrent against perceived threats from the US and its allies, including South Korea. — AFP
