More military \u2018provocation\u2019 by N Korea could lead to tougher action in line with UN Security Council resolutions, envoy says<\/b>
China and South Korea have agreed to impose \u201cstrong\u201d new sanctions on North Korea if it carries out further nuclear or long-range missile tests, a senior official in Seoul said on Monday. The commitment comes as pressure on Pyongyang mounts after last week\u2019s summit between US President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping. Monday\u2019s meeting in Seoul between China\u2019s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs Wu Dawei and his South Korean counterpart Kim Hong-kyun also came as a US naval strike group led by the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson headed to the region in a show of force. \u201cIn the midst of the growing possibility of North Korean provocations, The latest visit by Wu \u00adDawei to Korea is very timely in terms of sending a strong warning to North Korea,\u201d Yonhap news agency quoted Kim as saying. Wu\u2019s trip was the first to South Korea by a senior Chinese official since a diplomatic row erupted between Beijing and Seoul over South Korea\u2019s planned deployment of the US\u2019 Terminal High \u00adAltitude Area Defence system. Analysts said Beijing appeared to be taking a more active role in warning North Korea not to test Beijing\u2019s bottom line with more strategic military tests. North Korea has several major anniversaries this month, including the 105th anniversary on Saturday of its founding leader\u2019s birth, and often marks the occasions with major tests of military hardware. The possibility of US military action against North Korea in response to such tests gained traction after last week\u2019s strikes against Syria. But, Kim said, there was no mention of any military option in his talks with Wu. The two also did not discuss any possible strike against the North by the United States, he said. \u201cBoth sides agreed that despite the international community\u2019s warnings, if North Korea makes strategic provocations such as a nuclear test or an ICBM launch, there should be strong additional measures in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions,\u201d Kim said. Kim added the two sides agreed that \u201can even stronger UN resolution\u201d would have to be adopted in the event of additional weapons tests by North Korea. Wu did not speak to reporters. Kim said Wu repeated China\u2019s position on the THAAD system deployment, but did not give details. China has previously said the system would destabilise the regional security balance and that its radar\u2019s reach would intrude into Chinese territory. Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson agreed yesterday on the sidelines of G7 meeting in Viareggio, Italy, to urge China to \u201cplay a bigger role\u201d in halting North Korea\u2019s nuclear and missile programmes. in an interview broadcast on Sunday, Tillerson told CBS\u2019s that when Trump and Xi met at the Mar-a-Lago resort last week, they \u201chad extensive discussions around the dangerous situation in North Korea\u201d. US National Security Adviser HR McMaster also criticised North Korea as a rogue nation engaged in provocative behaviour and said denuclearisation of the peninsula \u201cmust happen\u201d. \u201cThe president has asked them to be prepared to give us a full range of options to remove that threat,\u201d he said on Fox News, apparently referring to Trump\u2019s advisers. Wang Sheng, from Jilin University, said Beijing was sounding another alarm to Pyongyang, its long-time ally. \u201cIt looks like China is trying to take a more proactive role to warn North Korea not to try to cross China\u2019s bottom line,\u201d Wang said, adding that China could impose tougher sanctions over food or even oil if Pyongyang continued to be provocative. Lee Kyu-tae, a geopolitical analyst at South Korea\u2019s Catholic Kwandong University, said Wu\u2019s trip to Seoul might also help repair ties strained by the THAAD dispute. \u201cChina has pressured South Korea over the THAAD deployment for months. It may need [to send someone] to South Korea to assess how to repair its relations with Seoul,\u201d Lee said. Zhang Tuosheng, from the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies, agreed that Wu\u2019s trip also serves to assess the latest development on deployment of the US anti-missile system. \u201cIt is meaningful for Wu … to reach out South Korean officials, prepare responses for further situations [on the peninsula], and also understand the developments over [THAAD],\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n