Kerry, on a two-day visit to Beijing, had been expected to press China, North Korea’s lone major backer, for more curbs on Pyongyang after it said it had successfully conducted a test of a miniaturized hydrogen nuclear device, though the United States has voiced skepticism as to whether it was that powerful.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry, who’s in Beijing for discussions, called North Korea’s nuclear ambitions a “danger to the world” and encouraged new sanctions.
Wang said the islands in the South China Sea have been China’s territory since ancient times. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry listens to an opening statement by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016, on the final leg… Wang repeatedly mentioned the need for stability on the Korean Peninsula.
Laos is chairing Asean this year and, like Cambodia, shares a close economic relationship with China.
“Sanctions are not an end in themselves”, Yi said.
According to Chinese Foreign Minister, global sanctions against North Korea should not be the goal in itself but rather serve as means of resuming negotiations on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
“The U.S. may have realized the approach before of trying to appeal to China’s ego, trying to praise China into becoming, in the U.S. eyes, a responsible power, has not produced any result”, Xie said.
The top U.S. diplomat will also raise concerns over Beijing’s problematic behaviour in the South China Sea and the thorny issues of humans rights and civil freedoms, a senior State Department official said.
As Kerry arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, the state-run China Daily ran an article headlined: “Experts have low hopes for Kerry’s China trip”.
The two sides, which held talks in Beijing on Wednesday, have agreed only to pursue a new UN Security Council resolution on the matter. “The United States…will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state”, Kerry said.
China has said it would support a United Nation resolution condemning North Korea, which Yi reiterated Wednesday.
Lankov said that Moscow regards North Korean nuclear capacity as part of a broader U.S.-Russia conflict.
Kerry described North Korea to reporters this weekend as a “clearly reckless and risky, evolving security threat in the hands of somebody who is questionable in terms of judgment and has proven thus to China”.
Kerry called on China to stop land reclamation and building airstrips in disputed areas.
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“Such an action is extremely unhelpful and does not contribute to the peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea”, said Sonia Urbom, a spokeswoman from the American Institute in Taiwan, which functions as the de facto U.S. embassy in the absence of formal diplomatic ties. By now, such actions by the U.S. and China have become routine. “So visiting those countries will help you perceive the situation in Asia on a more comprehensive basis and learn from the opinions of various parties in a more objective manner”, Wang said. It rejects claims from countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam and has bristled at USA warnings that its activities threaten the freedom of navigation in some of the world’s busiest commercial shipping lanes.
