China's foreign ministry said Monday that it is verifying a Japanese media report that a senior North Korean agent was arrested in the Chinese border city of Dandong earlier this month.

Citing multiple sources close to relations between North Korea and China, Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported on Sunday that the North Korean agent was arrested at his home in Dandong and Chinese authorities confiscated 30 million yuan ($4.54 million) and gold bars.

The report did not specify what charges were sought against the North Korean agent.

Asked about the report, China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang neither confirmed nor denied, saying "I need to check on details."

According to the report, the arrest was made days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met a high-ranking North Korean official, Ri Su-yong, in Beijing on June 1.

The meeting between Ri and Xi was seen as a bid to mend political ties between North Korea and China, that were frayed because of the North's nuclear weapons ambition. (Yonhap)