U.S. Urges China Help on N. Korea Denuclearization

China must tell North Korea that Washington wants to see "real progress" from Pyongyang on resuming long-halted six-party denuclearization talks, a senior U.S. official said Monday.

An aide to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the comments during a quick stop in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, where America's top diplomat was meeting local officials.

"We have to make sure that China tells North Korea of our determination to see real progress from Pyongyang on the possible resumption of talks on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," the official said.

Clinton on Sunday invited the North's vice foreign minister Kim Kye-Gwan, a former nuclear negotiator, to New York for "exploratory talks" later this week on restarting the negotiations.

The six-party forum -- grouping the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia and Japan -- was last held in December 2008.

Clinton traveled to Shenzhen, a bustling industrial city, by road from Hong Kong where she had earlier addressed business leaders.