Xi pushed US at G20 to show flexibility on North Korea including timely easing of sanctions: China

Beijing, Beijing, China

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged US President Donald Trump to "show flexibility" towards North Korea, including the "timely" easing of sanctions, at the G20 summit last week, China's foreign minister said Tuesday.

Xi "pushed for the US to show flexibility and meet the DPRK (North Korea) halfway, including the timely easing of sanctions against the DPRK and finding a solution to each other's concerns through dialogue," Wang Yi told reporters.

Meanwhile, South Korean President Moon Jae-in hailed the third meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in the Demilitarised Zone as the result of an "astounding imagination" and thinking outside the box.

All three held an impromptu encounter at the truce village of Panmunjom on Sunday when Trump became the first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea and agreed with Kim to resume working-level talks, which had been deadlocked since the collapse of their second summit in Hanoi in February.

The gathering was proposed by Trump via Twitter a day earlier, offering to meet Kim at the border to "say hello", with the North delivering an unusually fast response.

Moon -- whose administration had been excoriated by the North only last week and told it had "nothing to meddle in the dialogue" -- praised both men's actions.

"That extraordinary proposal and bold response is the result of an astounding imagination that goes beyond common sense," Moon said. "This is unthinkable in the existing diplomatic grammar."

The dramatic DMZ meeting was full of symbolism, and while it did not produce a formal communique both sides said afterwards that they would continue working-level talks to restart the stalled nuclear negotiations.