Moon Jae-in calls on Xi to do more on N. Korea nuclear program
Urges ‘strong’ sanctions, hardening campaign stance
SEOUL, South Korea: South Korean President Moon Jaein said on Thursday China should do more to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program and he would call on President Xi Jinping to lift measures against South Korean companies taken in retaliation against Seoul’s decision to host a US antimissile defense system.
In an interview with Reuters ahead of his trip to Washington next week for a summit with US President Donald Trump, Moon said ‘strong’ sanctions should be imposed if North Korea tests an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) or conducts a sixth nuclear test.
“It must be sufficiently strong enough that it would prevent North Korea from making any additional provocations, and also strong enough that it will make North Korea realize that they are going down the wrong path,” Moon said.
The comments mark the toughest warning yet by the liberal former human rights lawyer, who was elected in May after campaigning for a more moderate approach to the North and engaging the reclusive country in dialogue.
As a candidate, he said, sanctions alone have failed to impede Pyongyang’s defiant pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
North Korea will acquire the technology to deploy a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of hitting the mainland US “in the not too distant future,” Moon said.
“I believe China is making efforts to stop North Korea from making additional provocations, yet there are no tangible results as of yet,” Moon told Reuters at the sprawling Blue House presidential compound.
“China is North Korea’s only ally and China is the country that provides the most economic assistance to North Korea,” Moon said. “Without the assistance of China, sanctions won’t be effective at all.”
Moon’s remarks echoed that of US President Donald Trump, who said in a tweet on Tuesday Chinese efforts to persuade North Korea to rein in its nuclear program have failed. Top US officials pressed China on Wednesday to exert more economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea in talks with their counterparts in Washington on Wednesday.
“Maybe President Trump believes that there is more room for China to engage North Korea and it seems that he is urging China to do more. I can also sympathize with that message,” Moon said.
China accounts for 90 percent of world trade with North Korea. Diplomats say Beijing has not been fully enforcing existing international sanctions on its neighbor, and has resisted tougher measures, such as an oil embargo and bans on the North Korean airline and guest workers.
Washington has considered imposing “secondary sanctions” against Chinese banks and other firms doing business with North Korea.
South Korea and the US agreed to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in response to the growing missile threat from North Korea.
But the move has angered China, which says the system’s powerful radar will look deep into its territory and undermine regional security. China has pressured South Korean businesses via boycotts and bans, such as ending Chinese group tours to South Korea and closing most of South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group’s Lotte Mart retail stores in China.
Lotte handed over a golf course it owned in southern South Korea so the THAAD battery could be installed there.
Moon said that while China has never officially acknowledged economic retaliation, many South Korean businesses face difficulties in China, and he hopes to hold talks with Xi at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany next month to address the issue.
“If I have the chance to meet President Xi, I will ask for him to lift these measures. This is the agenda that we cannot evade,” Moon said.
“If we were to link political and military issues to economic and cultural exchanges, this could lead to some hindrance to the development of our friendly relationship between our two countries.”
Moon said he wants to sit down with as many world leaders as possible in Hamburg — including Xi, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin — where he expects the North’s nuclear program will top the agenda.