China on Thursday urged North and South Korea to put their differences aside and resume dialogue, a day after the acrimonious collapse of talks that were aimed at easing tensions.

"We hope the two sides can maintain the momentum of dialogue and contact, meet each other halfway and work together to play a constructive role in improving relations and safeguarding peace and stability on the (Korean) peninsula," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said.

The North's negotiators walked out of the talks in the border village of Panmunjom on Wednesday after rejecting Seoul's demands for an apology for a pair of incidents that sent tensions soaring between the two sides, South Korea's defence ministry said.

The two-day talks were the first since the North's shelling of a South Korean island on November 23, which killed four people including two civilians and briefly raised fears of all-out war.

In the other incident, Seoul accuses its neighbour of torpedoing a warship in March last year near their sea border with the loss of 46 lives. Pyongyang denies the charge.

The meeting was intended to set the agenda and date for a high-level military dialogue.

Speaking during a regular press briefing, Ma also repeated China's regular call for a resumption of stalled six-nation talks hosted by Beijing and also including the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the US, on negotiating Pyongyang's abandonment of its nuclear programmes.

He said South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Wi Sung-Lac would meet with Chinese foreign ministry officials in Beijing including his counterpart Wu Dawei during a two-day visit starting Thursday.

"Realising the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula through dialogue and negotiation, and safeguarding peace and stability in northeast Asia, is China's consistent and firm position," Ma said.

He gave no other details on Wi's meetings in Beijing.

China is North Korea's main ally and provides an economic lifeline to the hardline regime in Pyongyang.