China addresses nuclear threat

BEIJING SENDS TOP ENVOY TO SOUTH KOREA US naval strike group sent as warning to sabrerattling North.

China’s top nuclear envoy arrived in Seoul yesterday for talks on the North Korean threat, while the US sent a naval strike group to the region, signalling it may shut down Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

President Donald Trump, fresh from a missile strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as a warning to North Korea, has asked his advisers for a range of options to rein in North Korea’s ambitions.

Wu Dawei, China’s special representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs, was to meet with his South Korean counterpart yesterday or today to discuss the nuclear issue.

The talks come after Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit at which he pressed Pyongyang’s key ally to do more to curb the North’s nuclear plans.

“[We] are prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us,” US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the summit.

But he added that Beijing had indicated a willingness to act on the issue.

“We need to allow them time to take actions,” Tillerson said, adding that Washington had no intention of attempting to remove the regime of Kim Jong-un.

The meeting between Xi and Trump came on the heels of yet another missile test by the North, which fired a medium-range ballistic missile on Wednesday. – AFP