Beijing Wants To Discuss North Korea Sanctions
Days after North Korea conducted a new missile test, neighboring China called on world powers Friday to resume six-party talks with the Kim Jong Un-led nation over its nuclear program.
Pyongyang drew severe criticism from across the world after saying it had successfully test-fired a new type of medium- to long-range ballistic missile last Sunday. Kim reportedly supervised the test of the missile, which flew about 310 miles east before falling into the East Sea, according to South Korea’s defense ministry.
While most world powers unanimously criticized the tests, China said talks — the six-party ones including the U.S., South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and North Korea — would be more successful in dealing with Pyongyang’s nuclear threat than international sanctions.
“There are still opportunities for the resumption of six-part talks,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at the Munich Security Conference, according to Reuters. “We should work to bring the parties back to the table.”
North Korea had decided to suspend its nuclear program after talks with the five countries in 2005, in return for diplomatic rewards and assistance. The talks, however, collapsed in 2008, when the regime refused to cooperate with the other countries, resulting in sanctions.
“Today, what we see is nuclear test, sanction, nuclear test and then sanction again,” Agence France-Presse reported Wang as saying. “This negative cycle should not continue. Because the ultimate end result could be something that no one can bear. It’s a situation where everyone loses.”
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (right) and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi walk to their seats before a meeting on the sidelines of a gathering of Foreign Ministers of the G20 leading and developing economies at the World Conference Center in Bonn, Germany, Feb. 17, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan Smialowski
Also on Friday, Wang — whose nation is Pyongyang’s only primary ally — had a meeting with the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said China must help combat North Korea’s nuclear mission and deter its ballistic missile tests.
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