BEIJING (REUTERS) - Mr Liu Yunshan, the Chinese Communist Party's fifth-ranked leader, told a North Korean envoy on Thursday that China hopes all parties would work towards denuclearisation and called on all sides to restart talks on North Korea as soon as possible, state television reported.

Mr Liu, who is also the propaganda tsar, also told Mr Choe Ryong Hae, a "special envoy" of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that China is committed to its relationship with North Korea and that peace and stability on the Korean peninsula is in the interests of all sides.