Beijing: Korean issue talks crucial

The nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula can be solved only through strengthened talks, analysts said, backing a senior Chinese diplomat’s call at the United Nations for “negotiated solutions”.

“China has been working very hard to try to initiate a negotiated solution of the issues of denuclearization, peace and stability,” said China’s ambassador to the UN Liu Jieyi at a news conference on Monday, marking the end of China’s rotating term in July in the presidency of the Security Council.

“Our objective is to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, maintain peace and stability on the peninsula and seek negotiated solutions through dialogue and consultations,” Liu said. He said China is opposed to conflicts or wars on the peninsula.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters at the State Department on Tuesday that the US would like dialogue with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at some point, but only on the understanding that it can never be a nuclear power.

Tillerson reiterated that Washington sought to persuade the DPRK to give up its missile and nuclear weapons programs through peaceful pressure.

“We are not your enemy ... but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us, and we have to respond. And we hope that at some point they will begin to understand that and we would like to sit and have a dialogue with them,” Tillerson said.

However, “a condition of those talks is there is no future where North Korea holds nuclear weapons or the ability to deliver those nuclear weapons to anyone in the region, much less the (US) homeland,” he said.

China has called for the parties involved to seriously consider its proposed “suspension for suspension”, which suggests the DPRK suspend its nuclear and missile activities and the United States and the Republic of Korea suspend their largescale military exercises, to ease tensions and resume negotiations.

Wang Junsheng, a researcher in Korean Peninsula studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the parties involved “cannot solve the nuclear issue in the peninsula by flexing the muscles at each other”, and urged them to adopt China’s proposal to create conditions for talks, which aim at setting up a peace mechanism.

The DPRK testfired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Friday, the second such test within a month. Two US bombers flew over the peninsula in response.