U.S. Calls on China to Use Influence to Restrain North Korea

China should use its influence to restrain North Korea and urge it to denuclearize, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said today.

“China does have influence with North Korea and we would hope and expect China would use that influence” to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, Crowley told reporters in Washington.

North Korea’s artillery attack yesterday on a South Korean island near the disputed border between the countries killed four people.

Earlier, President Barack Obama said China should “make clear to North Korea that there are a set of international rules that they need to abide by,” according to a partial transcript of an interview with ABC News’s Barbara Walters.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Washington at ngaouette@bloomberg.net.