‘No more new nuke countries’
Bilateral ties would suffer if NK loses Chinese public sympathy: expert
China is against allowing more nucleararmed countries in the world, and Chinese experts warned that if North Korea loses sympathy from the Chinese people, then Beijing would lose its justification to safeguard bilateral ties.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Thursday that “whether it is North or South Korea, Northeast Asia or other regions, there should be no more new nuclear-armed countries on this planet.” He made the remarks during a speech at the General Debate of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Wang said China is always a force for peace and has made unremitting efforts toward the peaceful settlement of the issue. “Whatever changes may take place, no matter how long it will take, and whatever difficulties we may face, China will stay firmly committed to the denuclearization of the peninsula.”
North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong-ho is scheduled to speak at the UN general debate on Friday.
“Ri will very likely try to persuade the international community to accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed country since North Korea has already developed a hydrogen bomb, but Foreign Minister
Wang has made it clear that North Korea’s diplomatic efforts would fail,” said Lü Chao, a research fellow on North Korea at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences.
Wang is not only speaking to North Korea, but to any country thinking of developing nuclear weapons, and countries which want to use North Korea as an excuse to launch their own nuclear programs, Lü noted.
Misguided complaint
North Korea’s official media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) also published a commentary on Friday complaining about Chinese media as well as China’s sanctions on North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests.
KCNA criticized China’s peace-making and denuclearization efforts, saying China is “kowtowing” to the US by implementing the UN resolutions. KCNA called the UN resolutions “the dirty excrement of the reactionaries of history.”
“KCNA is distorting China’s efforts to safeguard peace on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea should understand that China opposes North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons not because of the stance of the US and its allies. China’s position is based on China’s own national interests and its responsibility toward regional security,” said Zheng Jiyong, director of Fudan University’s Center for Korean Studies.
“North Korea has totally ignored China’s efforts to stop the military aggression of the US and its allies against North Korea, and to resume talks. If China didn’t do anything, the US may have destroyed North Korea many times over,” Lü remarked.
“North Korea should not expect China to oppose the whole international community over its wrong and dangerous behavior. Opposing North Korea’s nuclear weapons program does not only come from the US, it is a stance shared by the international community, including China and Russia,” Zheng added.
This is not the first time that KCNA releasing complaints to China and Chinese media. With the increase of North Korea’s missile and nuclear tests in 2017, its complaints against and abuse of China are also getting more frequent and specific.
“This is very unwise, and has already offended many Chinese people. On the Chinese Internet, anger toward North Korea is rising, and North Korea should understand that if the Chinese people have no more sympathy for Pyongyang, then the Chinese authorities would lose the public opinion foundation needed to maintain bilateral ties built by both countries’ founding fathers,” Lü said.
‘Hilarious’ tit-for-tat
On Friday, Kim Jong-un, in his capacity as chairman of North Korea’s State Affairs Commission, released a statement in a lively televised speech in response to Trump’s remarks at the UN general debate. Kim said, “I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire,” KCNA reported.
In his UN speech, Trump called Pyongyang a “band of criminals” and Kim a “Rocket Man” on “a suicide mission.”
On Friday, Trump said on his twitter account that Kim is “obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people.”
This hilarious tit-for-tat between US and North Korean leaders is unprecedented, Lü said. “No US president has made such a statement about North Korea’s leader, and Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il also never said anything about any US president like Kim Jong-un has. Apparently, their statements are just talk, not actions.”