BEIJING -- China on Friday appeared to be wary of an impending accord among South Korea, the United States and Japan that would allow the three nations to share intelligence on North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

The pact, to be signed on Monday, would pave the way for South Korea, the U.S. and Japan to better cope with North Korea's potential provocations, but some Chinese experts have expressed displeasure because such an agreement draws the U.S. closer into Northeast Asia.

Asked about the three-way pact, China's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, replied, "We hope that all parties concerned will do things that are conducive to building mutual trust as well as promoting stability of the Korean Peninsula instead of the other way around."

South Korea and Japan are both hosts of tens of thousands of U.S. troops, but they have no bilateral pact to share intelligence on North Korea.

In South Korea, memories of Japan's brutal colonial rule are still vivid. At the same time, Tokyo's unrepentant attitude over its wartime atrocities, including the sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, has made it difficult for the U.S. to forge better three-way security cooperation with South Korea and Japan.

Despite China's apparent efforts to rein in North Korea, Pyongyang has continued to develop its nuclear and missile capacity, posing a major security threat to the region and beyond.

North Korea has also threatened to conduct its fourth nuclear test in an angry reaction to a U.N. move to censure the North Korean regime's dismal human rights record at the International Criminal Court. (Yonhap)