Beijing is deflecting blame for North Korea’s nuclear program, while antagonizing South Korea over THAAD. Beijing is deflecting blame for North Korea’s nuclear program, while antagonizing South Korea over THAAD.
With the North Korean nuclear crisis escalating, President Trump has repeatedly accused Beijing of refusing to use its control over Pyongyang to curb the latter’s nuclear program. Today, however, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi denied that implication, blaming rising tensions on Seoul and Washington as much as Pyongyang. Financial Times :
The Chinese are posing as the responsible actors here, but that disingenuous posture is unlikely to go over well in Washington or Seoul. And Wang’s initial proposal that South Korea and the United States suspend their military exercises, in the uncertain hope that North Korea will play along and engage in productive talks, is likely to be dead on arrival.
Meanwhile, as China deflects the blame for Pyongyang’s activity, it continues to pressure Seoul over its deployment of the THAAD missile defense system.
