China on Sunday vowed to try to persuade North Korea to return to six-party talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons programmes, as the US and South Korea emphasised Beijing's influence over the rogue communist state.

High-level discussions continued over the weekend as the five allies in the talks tried to come up with an alternative course of action following Pyongyang's brazen declaration last week that it had manufactured nuclear weapons and was “indefinitely” withdrawing from the talks.