China’s relations with North Korea have been strained by Pyongyang’s nuclear provocations but in a sign of warming ties, the North Korean foreign minister met with his counterpart Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the ASEAN security meeting in Laos.
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The comment has come amid tensions following the USA and South Korea’s announcement earlier this month regarding deploying the advanced Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system in the Korean peninsula, which has drawn protests from China.
Pundits say South Korea-China relations could go downhill, … while North Korea-China relations could move up.
“It is not aimed at any other party other than North Korea and the threat it poses and this defensive weapons system is neither designed nor capable of threatening China’s security interests”, Reuters quoted a usa official as saying.
Kerry noted that the U.N. Security Council in March adopted the “toughest set of sanctions in a generation” on North Korea.
But a US State Department official emphasised: “I think that the North Korean foreign minister will again hear from not only the Secretary of State but from others in the room that the world is not prepared to accept North Korea as a nuclear state”.
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Laos.
The Korean peninsula has been in a state of heightened tension following the North’s fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch the next month that prompted the South and the United States to impose their own sanctions.
The third panelist at the South Korea-linked Korea Foundation event agreed.
North Korea has accused the South of “hideous abduction”, after Seoul said in April that the 13 restaurant workers had chosen to seek asylum in the South.
It has been taken by the United States and the Republic of Korea, our treaty ally.
North Korea recently warned of unspecified “physical” measures in response to a U.S. plan to deploy an advanced missile defense system in South Korea by the end of next year.
The US is due to hold sideline talks with China and Russian Federation, but US officials said a meeting with Pyongyang’s envoy is highly unlikely.
“Mr. Ri on Tuesday said the US had made a declaration of war by criticizing North Korea’s human-rights record”.
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Unification Ministry spokeswoman Park Soo-jin fired back, saying there should first be changes in the North’s policy of seeking to become a nuclear power state if it wants any meaningful dialogue with the South.
