Xi, Park talk about tension on peninsula (2)

Another B-52 training mission was carried out on Tuesday, Yonhap News Agency cited an ROK military official as saying.

Pyongyang is now closely watching the B-52 movements, the DPRK Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

The bomber flights are an "unpardonable provocation against the DPRK", and come at a time when the Korean Peninsula "is inching close to the brink of war", the Korean Central News Agency reported.

Wang, the CASS expert, said Washington and Seoul should avoid moves that Pyongyang may perceive as threats, including deploying nuclear weapons and B-52 bombers to the peninsula.

"Reconciliation between Seoul and Pyongyang also requires their taking initiative to signal non-antagonistic attitudes, and provocative comments and acts should be avoided," he said.

The leaders of relevant countries should "exercise the required historical responsibility and face up to the nuclear crisis of this time", said Zhang Liangui, an expert on Korean studies at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Wednesday's phone call came right after China's new foreign minister, Wang Yi, and his ROK counterpart, Yun Byung-se, talked by telephone on Tuesday night about bilateral relations and the situation on the peninsula.

Regarding relations on the peninsula, Wang said he said he could "feel the pain inflicted by the separation of compatriots".

Wang Yi said China is willing to continue to play a constructive role in improving relations between the ROK and the DPRK to achieve peaceful unification through their own efforts.