U.s. state secy holds top-level talks in china
Tillerson met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Beijing’s top diplomat State Councillor Yang Jiechi, who outranks the foreign minister.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held top- level talks in China on Saturday as the United States looks to tighten an economic squeeze aimed at persuading North Korea to retreat from its nuclear arms and missile programs.
The United States sees China as critical to averting a military confrontation with Pyongyang, which is fast advancing toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States.
But to succeed in reaching any kind of diplomatic solution, Tillerson would need to overcome some basic US assumptions about North Korea and China.
The first would be getting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to view nuclear weapons as a liability, not a strength. The US intelligence community does not believe Kim is likely to willingly give up his weapons program.
The second big challenge for Tillerson would be getting China to impose economic sanctions on North Korea so harsh that Kim might question his future if they persisted.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say they believe China’s priority is stability on the Korean peninsula, since a political collapse would almost certainly push destabilizing waves of refugees into northeastern China.
US President Donald Trump, who is due to visit China in November, has called for it to do more on North Korea and has promised to take steps to rebalance a trade relationship that his administration says puts US businesses at a disadvantage.
Tillerson also held talks with President Xi Jinping, and China’s top diplomat State Councillor Yang Jiechi, who outranks the foreign minister. There was no mention of North Korea in any of the remarks in front of reporters, nor in the Chinese government’s account of the meeting with Xi, which focused on Sino-US cooperation. Ministry cited Xi as saying.
The US State Department did not suggest any major announcements would be made on Tillerson’s trip but the China Daily said it needed to be more than a “routine show of mutual goodwill” ahead of Trump’s visit.
“The guest and his hosts must ... straighten at least one thing out - what each can expect from the other to ensure the situation on the Korean peninsula does not deteriorate and spiral out of control,” it said.
Tillerson has in the past expressed hope for dialogue with North Korea. US diplomats have also sought to assure Pyongyang that Washington is not seeking to oust Kim, even as Trump and Kim exchange insults and threats of war.
“We are not seeking regime change or collapse,” State Department Assistant Secretary Susan Thornton, who is traveling with Tillerson, told a Senate hearing on Thursday.
Thornton’s remarks were welcomed in Beijing, which is calling for a peaceful solution to the crisis.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the United States had issued many “positive signals” that the North Korean nuclear issue should be resolved via talks. Still, it is unclear how and when negotiations with Pyongyang might be possible. The United States is probing North Korea to see whether it is interested in dialogue and has multiple direct channels of communication with Pyongyang, Tillerson said on Saturday.
“We are probing, so stay tuned,” Tillerson told a small group of reporters during a trip to China. “We ask: Would you like to talk?
He then said the United States had “a couple of, three channels open to Pyongyang.” “We can talk to them. We do talk to them,” he said, without elaborating.