WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been "in direct touch" with her Chinese and Russian counterparts to talk about North Korea's planned rocket launch, an official said Monday.
"Secretary Clinton has been in direct touch with (Chinese) Foreign Minister Yang (Jiechi), exchanging views and concerns about the DPRK's planned launch, as she has with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov," said Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman for the State Department. DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
She added that Clinton had discussions with Yang on Friday on her way back to Washington from a foreign trip, apparently meaning over the phone.
"You know how closely we work with China on these issues," Nuland said. "So they compared notes about what we're seeing."
The top-level consultations between Washington and Beijing came amid a continued effort by the international community to avert Pyongyang's move to fire what it claims to be a multi-stage rocket carrying a "working satellite."
Many say China may be the only nation that can exert political and economic influence over North Korea.
"The question was what influence China could bring to bear on the DPRK to see reason and focus on the development of their country and the feeding of their people rather than on ballistic missile launches that are in violation of their international obligations," Nuland said.
She added the U.S. government remains concerned that Pyongyang has extended the launch period rather than canceling it.
"Fundamentally their plans are unchanged," she said.
Pyongyang initially announced that it would launch the rocket between Dec. 10 and 22.
It later said the window will be extended by a week until Dec. 29 due to technical glitch in "the first-stage control engine module of the rocket."