China must rein in Kim
Just as US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jingping are set to have face-to-face talks today in Florida, North Korea, the renegade ally of the Asian superpower, has test-fired yet another ballistic missile in the Sea of Japan. Among the topics that are supposed to be on Mr Trump and Mr Xi’s agenda is taming North Korea, one of Asia’s most aggressive members, and which has been on the rampage with its testing of ballistic missiles over the course of this year and last.
China, as North Korea’s closest ally, has itself started to feel the heat and earlier this year decided to suspend the purchase of North Korean coal until the end of the year. But this does not seem to have had an impact on the the country under Kim Jong-un’s leadership.
Immediately after the last test, China urged all relevant parties to practise restraint and to refrain from escalating tensions, as the world condemned the launch.
Poverty-stricken North Korea still relies on China for its basic necessities, be it trade, oil, electricity or other essentials. And that makes China a key player in helping to resolve rising tensions in the northern Asian peninsular.
The Korean Peninsula today is one of the most dangerous flashpoints in the world and the severity of the situation seems to have stirred Mr Trump, who was until recently very focused on domestic politics, into coming out and openly stating that his administration was willing to go it alone in tackling the renegade country if China was not going to help.
“China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. If they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don’t, it won’t be good for anyone,” Mr Trump told the Financial Times recently.
This follows other statements from the likes of Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, who declared that American “strategic patience has ended” during his visit to Asia last month.
The Korean issue has thrust itself forward less than three months after the tough-talking US president entered the Oval Office. It simply reasserts a warning that Mr Trump’s predecessor had stated about how North Korea was a top foreign policy priority for the new administration as Mr Kim was an imminent threat to the US.
The Trump administration is worried about what analysts are saying which is that there is a high probability the North Koreans would be able to hit US soil with a nuclear warhead by the end of Mr Trump’s first term in four years’ time. Not to mention other closer Asian nations such as South Korea and Japan.
Amid the rhetoric coming out of Washington, the US must be well aware it faces a different situation in dealing with Pyongyang which boasts possession of nuclear arms, compared to when it invaded Iraq on the pretext of “weapons of mass destruction”.
An armed confrontation must be ruled out.
China needs to address the international community’s expectations to rein in its smaller-yet-aggressive ally. Just as Beijing needs to intensify its efforts, the rest of the world should observe UN resolutions by resorting to stricter sanctions that must cover firms that still do business with Pyongyang.
We need to stick to a peaceful way to persuade this aggressive country to behave.
There is a high probability the North Koreans would be able to hit US soil with a nuclear warhead by the end of Mr Trump’s first term.