China urges dialogue with N. Korea as UNSC meets

The United Nations Security Council ( UNSC) has met behind closed doors to discuss further sanctions on North Korea following its missile launch on Sunday, as the Chinese envoy called for dialogue.

“There is no reason why dialogue is not taking place in the current situation,” Chinese Ambassador to the UN Liu Jieyi told reporters after the meeting, adding: “It takes political will.”

The US has for weeks been negotiating a new Security Council sanctions resolution with China, but US Ambassador Nikki Haley said last week that no final draft text had been clinched, AFP reported.

Asked about imposing new sanctions, the Chinese ambassador responded that “this was a hypothetical question.” He added that the current sanctions must be applied “in

a comprehensive way.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay an official visit to Russia from Thursday to Friday, at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said Wednesday at a press briefing in Beijing.

Wang will meet Russian leaders and hold talks with Lavrov during this visit, Lu said. The Russian foreign ministry said that Wang and Lavrov will discuss the North Korean nuclear issue.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay an official visit to Russia in early July, Russian Ambassador to China Andrei Denisov said at a press conference, Sputnik reported on May 11.

China and Russia share many of the same opinions on the nuclear issue, said Lü Chao, an expert on Korean Studies at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences.

“We oppose nuclear proliferation in the peninsula, encourage a peaceful solution and strongly oppose the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense ( THAAD) anti- missile deployment, and both China and Russia have North Korea’s trust.”

“The US and South Korea are showing positive changes to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but North Korea is still conducting its missile tests without any move to ease the situation. China and Russia need to mediate the crisis,” Lü said.

North Korea launched two ballistic missiles, a Hwasong- 12 and a Pukguksong- 2, on May 14 and 21, in spite of UN sanctions. Members of the UNSC on Monday strongly condemned the launches, and agreed that the Security Council would “continue to closely monitor the situation and take further significant measures,” said the UN Security Council statement.

“Technically, North Korea needs to improve its nuclear weapons technology, and politically it wants to increase its bargaining chips for negotiation since the US and South Korea all expressed the will to talk,” said Wang Junsheng, a research fellow on East Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Troublemaker?

Before North Korea’s latest missile tests, the US and South Korea had spoken of trying to make positive changes to the situation.

US President Donald Trump said he would be honored to talk with North Korea under the right circumstances on May 1 when interviewed by Bloomberg.

South Korea’s new president Moon Jae- in has also made positive changes by promising engagement with Pyongyang and pushing the parliamentary hearing on THAAD’s deployment.

Lü pointed out that Pyongyang wants to obstruct the recovery of Sino- South Korean relationship.

“North Korea, strategically, needs tensions between China and South Korea, so if Moon successfully cancels THAAD, there would be one less consensus for China, Russia and North Korea,” Lü said.

Just as Moon was showing his sincerity to improve Sino- South Korean relationship, North Korea decided to launch missiles to provide more excuses to South Korean military hard- liners to convince the South Korean people and politicians to keep THAAD, thus continuing tensions between China and South Korea, he stressed.

“Although North Korea also opposes THAAD openly, its actions proved that it actually prefers to see tensions between China and Russia and the US and South Korea,” he said.