Beijing says world body should take “necessary measures” to resolve crisis, but still insists on ‘dialogue and negotiation’
China says it will support the United Nations taking further measures against North Korea in response to its latest nuclear test.
“Given the new developments on the Korean peninsula, ” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday during a news conference in Beijing, “the U. N. Security Council should respond further and take necessary measures” to deal with the crisis.
But Wang also stressed that “sanctions and pressure” must be go hand in hand with “dialogue and negotiation” with Pyongyang. China is North Korea’s biggest diplomatic and economic ally, and contends that tighter sanctions against Pyongyang will do little to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula.
At the White House Wednesday, U. S. President Donald Trump said “we will see what happens, ” when asked whether he would approve military action against North Korea, adding “that is not the first choice.” Trump spoke following a telephone call with China’s president, Xi Jinping.
Asked by VOA what he discussed concerning North Korea with the Chinese leader, Trump replied that “President Xi would like to do something on North Korea” but it is unclear “whether or not he can do it.”
Trump described his conversation with Xi as “very, very frank and very strong, ” saying it “was a very good phone call. It lasted a long time.”
The president added that on the recent provocations by North Korea, Xi “agrees with me 100 percent. He does not want to see what is happening there either.”
A flurry of conversations among regional and world leaders about North Korea has been prompted by Pyongyang exploding what it says, and several international experts concur, was a hydrogen bomb at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site on Sunday.
