Beijing urges restraint on peninsula

Beijing has again urged restraint and suggested that nations involved to give serious consideration to its proposal of "dual suspensions" after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's seemingly failed missile launch on Wednesday.

Describing the Korean Peninsula's tensions as pushed to the brink, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying in a daily news conference in Beijing called for all parties involved to avoid taking actions that are provocative, risky or that may cause miscalculation.

Media reports quoted military sources of the Republic of Korea and the United States as saying they detected what appeared to be the explosion of a missile soon after its launch in the DPRK on Wednesday.