China supports UN action while urging nuclear test talks

BeIJIng: China supports further United Nations action in response to North Korea’s latest nuclear test but also wants to see renewed efforts to begin dialogue involving all sides, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

China hopes North Korea will “see the situation clearly and come to the right judgment and choice”.

Wang yesterday said the UN should take “necessary measures”, but added that sanctions and pressure should spur dialogue and negotiation between the sides towards the goal of a peaceful resolution on the Korean Peninsula.

“We believe that sanctions and pressure are only half of the key to resolving the nuclear issue. The other half is dialogue and negotiation. Only when the two are put together can it unlock the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula,” Wang said.

China is a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, as well as North Korea’s main trading partner and source of food and fuel aid.

Also yesterday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang restated China’s opposition to South Korea’s deployment of the US Terminal High- Altitude Area Defence System, also known as THAAD, which is intended to protect against North Korean missile attacks.

Beijing says the system will be able to monitor flights and missile launches deep inside northeastern China.

Two of the system’s launchers are already operational, and the remaining four were added yesterday amid protests by residents living near the site in South Korea.

Geng told reporters that China had complained to the United States and South Korea and urged them to “take seriously the security concerns and interests of China and other regional countries”. — AP