China urges calm after North Korea leaves nuclear talks

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Tuesday appealed for "calm and restraint" from all sides after North Korea said it was pulling out of six-party talks on its nuclear weapons programme.

"We hope all sides will pay attention to the broader picture, exercise calm and restraint and protect progress in the six-party talks," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

The U.N. Security Council, of which China is a permanent member, on Monday unanimously condemned North Korea's long-range rocket launch nearly two weeks ago as contravening a U.N. ban, and demanded enforcement of existing sanctions against Pyongyang.

But China has always urged all sides to the six-party talks to cooperate in removing obstacles to an agreement.

Jiang said the six-party talks, joining the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia, had "played a positive role and achieved striking accomplishments" over the years.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Ken Wills)