China won't allow chaos or war on Korean peninsula: Xi

China will not allow chaos and war to break out on the Korean peninsula, which would be to no one's advantage, Chinese President Xi Jinping told a group of Asian foreign ministers on Thursday.

North Korea's drive to develop a nuclear weapons capability, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, has angered China and raised tension in the region.

"As a close neighbor of the peninsula, we will absolutely not permit war or chaos on the peninsula. This situation would not benefit anyone," Xi said in a speech to a Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia.

On Thursday, South Korea's defense ministry said North Korea had fired what appeared to have been an intermediate range ballistic missile that crashed within seconds of the test launch.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-northkorea-xi-idUSKCN0XP05P