Briefly

KOREAN PENINSULA

Envoy: China to continue its constructive role

Liu Xiaoming, the special representative of the Chinese government on Korean Peninsula affairs, held a video call with Jung H. Pak, the United States' senior official for the affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, on Thursday. Liu said China will continue to play a constructive role in advancing the political settlement process of the peninsula issue, urging all parties concerned to face up to the crux of the issue and resolve their respective concerns in a balanced manner through meaningful dialogue. Pak said the US values China's role in addressing the issue and hopes to communicate and cooperate with China in this regard.

UNITED STATES

Private spaceship touches down on moon

For the first time since the Apollo era, a private spaceship has landed on the moon — an uncrewed commercial robot funded by NASA to pave the way for US astronauts to return to Earth's cosmic neighbor later this decade. Odysseus, built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, touched down near the lunar south pole on Thursday at 23:23 GMT, after a nail-biting final descent where flight controllers had to switch to an experimental landing system and took several minutes to establish radio contact with the lander after it came to rest.

China Daily - Agencies