'Put more strain on N. Korea'

Tillerson: China has responsibility to do more in resolving crisis

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has urged Chinese officials to apply greater diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to force Pyongyang to rein in its nuclear weapons programme.

Tillerson’s remarks came after he and Pentagon chief Jim Mattis met with the Chinese visitors at the State Department on Wednesday, where the former general said he saw scope for a better defence relationship.

The extent to which Beijing can influence Pyongyang is key in defus- ing the North Korea crisis, and Tillerson’s remarks came a day after President Donald Trump seemed to suggest that China’s President Xi Jinping had come up short in efforts to lean on Kim Jong-un’s regime.

Calling North Korea the “top security threat” to the United States, Tillerson said China had a “diplomatic responsibility to exert greater economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime if they want to prevent further escalation in the region”.

For their part, the Chinese envoys voiced their opposition to Washington’s deployment of the THAAD anti-missile defence system in South Korea and demanded its withdrawal, China’s foreign ministry said.

China also proposed again a “dualtrack approach” in which North Korea would suspend its nuclear and missile activities, while the United States and South Korea would halt large-scale military exercises.

Trump, who often denounced China on the campaign trail, has turned to Beijing to help pressure its ally North Korea, prompting concern among Asian partners that the United States might go easy on the South China Sea territorial dispute.

But on Tuesday, Trump sent a tweet suggesting Xi’s efforts had not borne fruit – a message he reiterated before supporters in Iowa.

“I do like President Xi,” he told the crowd on Wednesday. “I wish we would have a little more help with respect to North Korea, from China. That doesn’t seem to be working.” — AFP