US says time for talk over N. Korea ‘is over’
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The time for talk on North Korea is “over,” the United States said, spurning a U.N. response to Pyongyang’s latest ICBM launch in favor of bomber flights and missile defense system tests.
Nikki Haley, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, said there was “no point” in holding a fruitless emergency Security Council session, warning that another weak council resolution would be “worse than nothing” in light of the North’s repeated violations.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un boasted of his country’s ability to strike any target in the U.S. after an intercontinental ballistic missile test Friday.
U.S. strategic bombers on Saturday flew over the Korean peninsula in a direct response to the launch, and on Sunday American forces successfully tested a missile interception system which the U.S. hopes will be installed on the Korean peninsula.
Under Kim’s leadership, North Korea has accelerated its drive towards a credible nuclear strike capability, in defiance of international condemnation and multiple sets of U.N. sanctions. The U.S. Senate passed new bipartisan sanctions on Pyongyang on Friday.
Haley urged China, Japan and South Korea to tighten the screws on Pyongyang.
“An additional Security Council resolution that does not significantly increase the international pressure on North Korea is of no value,” she said in a statement late Sunday.
“It sends the message to the North Korean dictator that the international community is unwilling to seriously challenge him.
“China must decide whether it is finally willing to take this vital step. The time for talk is over.”
Trump has repeatedly urged China to rein in its recalcitrant neighbor, but Beijing insists dialogue is the only practical way forward.
It rejected his linking of trade and the North, with commerce vice-minister Qian Keming telling a briefing Monday the issues “are not related, and should not be discussed together.”
Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of U.S. treaty ally Japan, also urged Beijing to act — along with Moscow — after telephone talks with Trump on Monday Tokyo time.
The North had “trampled all over” efforts to seek a peaceful solution to the situation and “unilaterally esca- lated” tensions.
“The international community including China and Russia must take it seriously and step up pressure,” Abe told reporters.
Pyongyang lauded the developers of the missile at the weekend, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.