China to North Korea: Abide by U. N. resolutions and stop provoking “the international community’s goodwill” with missile launches and nuclear tests.
China’s foreign minister on Sunday urged North Korea to halt its missile and nuclear testing, one day after China and Russia joined with the United States in a unanimous U. N. Security Council vote approving the toughest economic sanctions yet against the increasingly isolated regime.
“Do not violate the U. N.’s decision or provoke international society’s goodwill by conducting missile launching or nuclear tests, ” Foreign Minister Wang warned.
Wang and his North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong Ho, met at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ meeting of foreign ministers in Manila. Wang said he pressed Ri to abide by U. N. resolutions and also lobbied for resumption of the six-party talks that would include both Koreas, the U. S., Japan, China and Russia. The talks were initiated in Beijing in August 2003, but have been stalled since December 2008, with North Korea formally dropping out in April 2009.
U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last week the U. S. was willing to talk with Pyongyang — if the North agrees to abandon its quest for nuclear weapons.
On Saturday, the Security Council approved crippling economic sanctions targeting about a third of North Korea’s estimated $3 billion in annual exports. China and Russia could have vetoed the effort, and have at times protected Pyongyang in the world body. While both global powers went along, their representatives again urged the U. S. and South Korea to scale back joint military exercises and a missile defense program that have raised the ire of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Wang said Sunday the dual proposal is the most practical, viable and reasonable solution to de-escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula while providing a “way out” of the nuclear issue. The U. S. has consistently rejected the plan.
The sanctions ban countries from purchasing the North’s coal and related minerals as well as seafood. They also prohibit countries from increasing investments and the number of North Korean workers, and place nine individuals and four entities on the U. N. blacklist, including a global asset freeze and travel ban on North Korea’s primary foreign exchange bank.
“It was a good outcome, ” Tillerson said before meeting Sunday with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung Wha.
Nikki Haley, the U. S. ambassador to the United Nations, called the sanctions the most stringent on any country “in a generation.” President Trump was equally thrilled, tweeting: “The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact!”
China’s position appeared to reflect some positive movement from Trump’s unrelenting effort to enlist Beijing’s aid in curbing Pyongyang’s military buildup. Still, the U. S. also warned it planned to rigorously monitor China’s compliance with the new penalties. Susan Thornton, the top U. S. diplomat for Asia, said Beijing had historically cooperated with sanctions after flagrant North Korean violations but then slipped back over time.
“We want to make sure China is continuing to implement fully the sanctions regime, ” Thornton said in Manila. “Not this kind of episodic back and forth that we’ ve seen.”
The North Korean envoy hasn’ t spoken publicly since arriving in the Philippines. But a commentary in the ruling party’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper said Washington had disregarded the warning the North sent with its intercontinental ballistic missile tests and was pursuing “desperate efforts” in the form of stepped-up sanctions.
“Now the U. S. mainland is on the crossroads of life and death, ” the commentary warned.
The U. S. drafted the sanctions resolution and negotiated it with China following North Korea’s unprecedented test of an ICBM in July and a follow-up test weeks later. Those tests sharply escalated U. S. fears that Pyongyang is a key step closer to mastering the technology needed to strike American soil with a nuclear-tipped missile.
“Who has been carrying out the U. N. Security Council resolutions concerning North Korea? It is China, ” Wang, the Chinese foreign minister, said Sunday. “Who bore the cost? It is also China.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
