China believes that the US must show a more attractive and realistic approach to dealing with North Korea.
China’s UN ambassador on Friday urged the United States to be more flexible in its dealings with North Korea, as Beijing joined others to scrap a joint Security Council statement drawn up by the United States. Pyongyang’s missile launch, diplomats said.
Kim Jong Un’s regime conducted seven unprecedented weapons tests in January, including the most powerful rocket launch since 2017 as it hinted it could restart the nuclear test and range.
Diplomats told AFP.
China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, said of US officials ahead of the closed-door meeting convened at Washington’s request on North Korea: “If they want to see some new breakthrough, they should show more sincere and flexible”.
“They should come up with more attractive and realistic approaches, policies and actions that are more flexible and responsive to North Korea’s concerns,” Zhang told reporters.
The Chinese official noted that due to former US president Donald Trump’s policy towards North Korea, Pyongyang has suspended nuclear tests and international ballistic missile launches.
In recent months, however, Zhang lamented, “we’ve seen a vicious cycle of confrontation, condemnation, punishment.”
China and Russia have blocked the Council’s action on North Korea, and last year proposed a resolution that could ease sanctions on Pyongyang for humanitarian reasons, but the draft did not. was voted on due to disapproval.
“At least we’re doing something to facilitate further improvement and avoid escalation,” Zhang said.
– ‘Silence in progress’ –
After the meeting, the US special envoy to the world body, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the China-Russia proposal for sanctions relief would effectively reward North Korea for its behavior she called “bad behavior”.
“There’s no reason for this Board to reward them for nine tests in a month and nearly as many in previous years,” she told reporters.
“Spending millions of dollars on military tests when your people are starving shows that this country doesn’t care about its own people.”
Friday’s meeting on North Korea was the third in a month.
At its final meeting on 20 January, eight Council members – Albania, Brazil, Great Britain, France, Ireland, Norway, the United Arab Emirates and the United States – along with Japan proposed a Joint statement condemns North Korea’s tests.
Seven other members of the Council – China, Gabon, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mexico and Russia – refused to continue.
On Friday, those eight countries and Japan, led by Washington, released a new statement reiterating calls for North Korea to “stop its destabilizing actions and return to dialogue.”
“We continue to urge the DPRK to respond positively to requests from the United States and others to respond without preconditions,” the statement said.
The statement also appealed to other members of the Security Council, saying “the price to pay for the Council’s continued silence is too high.”
“It will encourage the DPRK to further challenge the international community; normalize violations of Security Council resolutions; further destabilize the region; and continue to threaten the peace and international security,” it said.
North Korea on Friday sent “warm congratulations” to its ally China attending the Beijing Olympics, a message that experts see as a likely signal of a possible ceasefire in rocket fire during the sporting event. this.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to hold trilateral talks in Hawaii on February 12 with South Korea and Japan on North Korea.
