China urged to boost defence talks with US, Japan, South Korea as trio joins hands on Pyongyang nuclear threat

China should step up defence dialogue with Japan, South Korea and the United States, defence experts have advised, after the two US allies and Washington agreed to boost security ties over North Korean missile and nuclear threats.

While the tripartite move, announced on the sidelines of a Nato summit in Madrid, was unlikely to pose an immediate, serious challenge to Beijing, plans for joint exercises might push the North into more provocative acts, the analysts warned.