China again urges "calm" in North Korea nuclear saga

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday again urged "calm and restraint" from all sides involved in talks aimed at disarming North Korea after Pyongyang expelled UN inspectors.

U.N. inspectors left North Korea on Thursday, after Pyongyang told them to leave the Yongbyon complex, which can make plutonium -- the material used by North Korea in its first and only nuclear test blast in 2006.

"We hope that all sides will exercise calm and restraint and be far-sighted in paying attention to the big picture, together striving to advance the six-party talks process," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news conference, a repeat of China's message after North Korea on Tuesday pulled out of the talks joining the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

China backed a U.N. Security Council statement on Monday condemning North Korea for launching a rocket on April 5 that other powers said had violated an earlier U.N. resolution.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Writing by Nick Macfie; editing by Ken Wills)