by Xinhua writer Wang Lili

SINGAPORE, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- China has played a positive and important role in easing tensions in Northeast Asia and pushing forward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, said Chen Gang, assistant director and senior research fellow of the East Asian Institute, the National University of Singapore.

China has been playing a very important and positive role in solving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, especially in recent years to help defuse tensions there and rebuild trust among related parties, Chen said in a recent interview with Xinhua ahead of a planned second summit between the leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States, slated for Feb. 27-28 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

China, as a major country, has significant influence over the situation in East Asia, he said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un many times over the past year, demonstrating China's readiness to continue playing a part in resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula as well as China's close ties with the DPRK, the scholar said.

Chen said isolating the DPRK is not conducive to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. Instead, effective engagement and dialogue represent the only viable means toward a possible solution.

China sticks to settling disputes through peaceful dialogue, supports the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, backs all the resolutions adopted by the United Nations Security Council on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula, he said.

China hopes that the international community will further engage and have dialogue with the DPRK, support its reform and opening-up and oppose any further military and security actions that might escalate the situation in the region, Chen said.

China has proposed to solve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula in a balanced manner that can be accepted by the parties concerned, and any solution that favors one side over the other is doomed to fail, Chen added.