Nuclear tension mounts
CHINESE President Xi Jinping called for all sides to exercise restraint in a telephone call about North Korea to US President Donald Trump, as Japan conducted exercises with a US aircraft carrier strike group headed for Korean waters.
Trump sent the carrier group for exercises in waters off the Korean peninsula as a warning, amid growing fears North Korea could conduct another nuclear test in defiance of United Nations sanctions.
Angered by the approach of the USS Carl Vinson carrier group, a defiant North Korea said yesterday the deployment was an extremely dangerous act.
“The United States should carefully consider any catastrophic consequence from its foolish military provocative act,” Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said in a column.
“What’s only laid for aggressors is dead bodies,” the newspaper said.
Two Japanese destroyers have joined the carrier group for exercises in the western Pacific, and South Korea said yesterday it was also in talks about holding joint naval exercises.
Concern that North Korea could be preparing to conduct another nuclear test or launch more ballistic missiles has increased as it prepares to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the foundation of its Korean People’s Army today.
It has marked similar events in the past with nuclear tests or missile launches.
Trump has vowed to prevent North Korea from being able to hit the United States with a nuclear missile and has said all options are on the table, including a military strike.
China is North Korea’s sole major ally, but has been angered by its nuclear and missile programmes.
China, which has repeatedly called for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, is worried the situation could spin out of control, leading to war and a chaotic collapse of its isolated, impoverished neighbour.
Trump, in his phone call to Xi, criticised North Korea’s continued belligerence and emphasised that its actions were destabilising the Korean peninsula, the White House said. Xi said that China resolutely opposed any actions that ran counter to UN Security Council resolutions.
China hoped that all relevant sides exercised restraint, and avoided doing anything to worsen the tense situation, the Chinese ministry said. – Reuters