US, China at odds on N. Korea
NEW YORK: The United States said yesterday ‘‘all options are on the table’’ to deal with North Korea and dismissed China’s suggestion of a ‘‘dual suspension’’ of US and South Korea military drills and Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear tests.
‘‘We are not dealing with a rational person,’’ US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said of North Korean leader Kim Jongun after the United Nations Security Council discussed North Korea’s launch of four ballistic missiles on Monday.
‘‘It is an unbelievable, irresponsible arrogance that we are seeing coming out of Kim Jongun at this time,’’ she said.
She said the administration of US President Donald Trump was reevaluating how it would handle North Korea and that ‘‘all options were on the table’’, adding: ‘‘We are making those decisions now and we will act accordingly’’.
North Korea fired the missiles into the sea off Japan’s coast in response to the annual USSouth Korea military drills, which Pyongyang sees as preparation for war. Pyongyang has fired dozens of missiles and conducted two of its five nuclear tests in the past year in defiance of UN resolutions.
In a statement sent to UN Secretarygeneral Antonio Guterres on Wednesday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry warned it would ‘‘reduce the bases of aggression and provocation to ashes with its invincible Hwasong rockets tipped with nuclear warheads and reliably defend the security of the country and its people’s happiness in case the US and the South Korean puppet forces fire even a single bullet at the territory of the DPRK.’’
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday the tests by the North and the joint drills across the border in South Korea were causing tension to increase like two ‘‘accelerating trains coming towards each other,’’ suggesting a ‘‘dual suspension’’ to allow all sides to return to negotiations.
‘‘We have to see some sort of positive action taken by North Korea before we can ever take them seriously,’’ Haley said when asked about Beijing’s proposal. She said the drills had been held annually for 40 years and North Korea was always notified.
The Security Council on Tuesday strongly condemned North Korea’s missile launches and expressed concern over the country’s ‘‘increasingly destablising behaviour’’. North Korea has been under UN sanctions aimed at impeding the development of its banned nuclear and missile programmes since 2006.
French UN ambassador Francois Delattre said on Wednesday France was also working on proposing new European Union ‘‘restrictive measures’’ on North Korea. He did not give details.