Russia, China: N. Korean must freeze nuclear activities, US halt THAAD deployment Russia, China: N. Korean must freeze nuclear activities, US halt THAAD deployment.<\/b>
\nMoscow and Beijing have agreed that North Korea should freeze its nuclear and missile programs, while the US and South Korea should abstain from holding war games in the region, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
\u201cWe\u2019 ve agreed to promote our joint initiative, based on Russian step-by-step Korean settlement plan and Chinese ideas to simultaneously freeze North Korean nuclear and missile activities, and US and South Korean joint military drills, \u201d Putin said at a press conference after meeting with China\u2019s leader, Xi Jinping, in Moscow.
\u201cWe believe that the outer world is turbulent, local conflicts are emerging constantly, such issues as the Korean peninsula problem, Syrian question, remain very complex, \u201d Xi Jinping said.
Russia\u2019s president stressed that the two countries have either the same, or very close positions on many international issues.
\u201cWe intend to further develop our foreign policy coordination, \u201d Putin said.
Moscow and Beijing stressed the importance of taking North Korea\u2019s concerns over its safety into consideration, calling them \u201cjustified.\u201d
\u201cThe two sides stress that justified North Korean concerns should be respected, \u201d a joint statement by Russia\u2019s and China\u2019s foreign ministers reads. \u201cOther countries should make certain moves to resume the negotiations, creating a peaceful disposition and mutual trust.\u201d
\u201cA possibility of the use of military measures to solve the problems of the Korean Peninsula must be ruled out, \u201d the joint statement stressed.
While condemning Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear and missile tests as violating UN Security Council resolutions, Moscow and Beijing urged the United States to immediately halt its deployment of THAAD anti-missile systems to South Korea.
\u201cThe sides agree that the deployment of THAAD anti-missile systems to Northeast Asia gravely damages strategic safety interests of regional powers, including Russia and China and do not contribute to the de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, as well as towards establishing peace and stability in the region, \u201d the statement reads.
\u201cRussia and China oppose the deployment of the said systems and call on the countries involved to immediately halt and cancel the process of their deployment.\u201d
Russia and China\u2019s calls for de-escalation and negotiation are clearly a step into right direction if the ongoing Korean crisis is to be untangled, Asia-Pacific defense consultant Jack Midgley believes.
\u201cNorth Korea now has at least a limited ballistic missile capability; they have at least a limited nuclear weapons capability. The question is: how will the world deal with the emergence of this new set of facts, \u201d Midgley said, adding \u201cthe experience of the last 60 years is very consistent there \u2013 it\u2019s that the only way forward that actually works is to bring the parties together and to negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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