Xi tells Trump peninsula peace is goal

Denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, maintaining the international nuclear non proliferation regime and preserving peace and stability in Northeast Asia are China’s unswerving goal, President Xi Jinping told US President Donald Trump in a phone conversation on Wednesday.

Xi said China would like to keep up communications with the US and all other related parties, and jointly push the nuclear issue toward the direction of peaceful settlement via dialogues and negotiations.

The phone call came hours after the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea announced it had successfully test-fired a newly developed “Hwasong-15” Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, which is capable of striking the entire US mainland.

The Washington Post reported the event on Wednesday on its front page with the headline “North Korea’s latest missile launch appears to put US capital in range”.

Trump, in a tweet posted on Wednesday, said he had just spoken to President Xi “concerning the provocative actions of North Korea. Additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today. This situation will be handled!”

It was not immediately clear what the additional sanctions are.

“President Trump emphasized the need for China to use all available levers to convince North Korea to end its provocations and return to the path of denuclearization,” the White House said in a readout of the phone call.

On Wednesday, Beijing expressed “grave concern and opposition” to Pyongyang’s latest missile test and called for talks to peacefully resolve the nuclear crisis on the peninsula.

“The United Nations Security Council resolutions are explicit about Pyongyang’s use of ballistic missile technologies, and China strongly urged Pyongyang to stop activities that increase tensions on the peninsula,” Foreign Ministry spokesman GengShuang said.

Geng also said that the “suspension for suspension” initiative proposed by China is the most feasible and reasonable approach to ease the current situation.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry also urged the DPRK to stop the nuclear missile tests, and asked the US and South Korea to stop military exercises to be held at the beginning of December, which will only inflame an already explosive situation.

Raj Shah, principal deputy press secretary at the White House, said on Wednesday, “We’re looking forward to applying as much pressure as we can to get to our ultimate goal, which is a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.”

In a tweet, Trump said he spoke to Xi and “additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea.”