China warning to North Korea over missile tests
CHINESE Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged North Korea to abide by UN resolutions and stop provoking “the international community’s goodwill” with missile launches and nuclear tests.
Mr Wang spoke to reporters in Manila after meeting North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on the sidelines of a regional meeting, hours after the UN Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its escalating nuclear and missile programmes.
Mr Wang said the two had an intensive conversation during which China urged North Korea to maintain calm.
He said he told Mr Ri “do not violate the UN decision or provoke the international community’s goodwill by conducting missile launches or nuclear tests”.
Mr Wang also urged the US and South Korea “to stop increasing tensions” and said that all sides should return to negotiations.
In an earlier statement on Sunday, Mr Wang appealed to other governments to resume the six-nation talks that involve the North, the United States, Russia, Japan and South Korea, as well as Beijing.
“The aim is to bring the peninsula nuclear issue back to the negotiating table and seek a solution through negotiations until the denuclearisation of the peninsula and the stability of the peninsula are achieved,” Mr Wang said.
North Korea pulled out of the talks in 2009 to protest against international condemnation of a long-range rocket launch. Last month, it testlaunched two intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US mainland.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said Washington wants eventually to talk to North Korea, but thinks discussions would not be productive if Pyongyang comes with the intention of maintaining its nuclear weapons.
Mr Wang’s statement repeated Beijing’s proposal for a “double suspension,” or a halt to North Korean nuclear development and to joint US-South Korean military exercises. It said that was the most reasonable way to ease tensions and create conditions for new talks.
US President Donald Trump has praised the new sanctions the UN Security Council approved for North Korea, saying they will have a “very big financial impact”.
The Security Council unanimously approved the sanctions on North Korea, including banning coal and other exports worth over $1bn (£770m).
The US-drafted measure, negotiated with North Korea’s neighbour and ally China, is aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programmes.
Mr Trump wrote on Twitter: “The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact!”
His national security adviser, HR McMaster, had said earlier that it is “impossible to overstate the danger” posed by North Korea.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Hugh Hewitt that aired on Saturday, Mr McMaster said Mr Trump has been “deeply briefed” on the strategy on North Korea.
Tensions have mounted with Pyongyang’s two recent successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Mr McMaster reiterated the Trump administration’s position that all options, including a targeted military strike, are on the table.
He continued: “So what we have to do is – is everything we can to – to pressure this regime, to pressure Kim Jong Un and those around him such that they conclude it is in their interest to denuclearise.”
The comments came as US secretary of state Rex Tillerson was in the Philippines for a regional summit expected to focus heavily on concerns with North Korea.