China's top diplomat relayed concern Friday over the upcoming naval exercises that South Korea and the U.S. plan to hold in the Yellow Sea in response to North Korea's deadly artillery strike on a southern island, an official said, Yonhap reported.
Beijing's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told his South Korean counterpart Kim Sung-hwan during a phone conversation that China has "expressed its principled position" many times before on joint South Korean-U.S. naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, the official said.