China has insisted it is already making great efforts to achieve denuclearization on the Korean peninsula and Wang rejected any “groundless speculation” on its North Korea stance, following remarks from US officials that China could do more.
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“The second issue is of course concerns and activities in the South China Sea”, Kerry said.
Beijing and Washington have kept up communication on the Korean nuclear issue, President Xi Jinping told US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday.
China also wants to enhance coordination with the United States on macroeconomic and financial policies as well as global economic governance, he said.
Chinese cooperation is key to putting together any meaningful punishment as it is one of the five veto-holding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and the main provider of food and fuel for the impoverished North.
Mr Kerry reiterated that call, and said he and Mr Wang were looking for a way to impose sanctions that would not unduly harm the people of North Korea. Earlier this month they initiated action of a stronger nature by using the Hydrogen Bomb which they shot off across the Pacific Ocean to reach a part of the United States.
Kerry’s arrival follows a similar Beijing visit by Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week that ended without agreement.
“The continuing tensions and problematic behaviour by China in the South China Sea is very much on the Secretary s mind and something that he will certainly discuss in depth”, the United States official said.
Also high on the agenda were discussions about territorial disputes in the South China Sea, where China’s increasing assertiveness has also contributed to strained relations between the two major powers. “Sanctions are not an end in themselves”, he said.
Nearly three years have passed since Kerry and China’s top diplomat, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, announced a joint commitment in Beijing to stop Kim’s nuclear weapons program after his previous atomic bomb test. Bank of China Ltd. subsequently closed the account of North Korea’s Foreign Trade Bank, which the US had accused of facilitating transactions linked to the North’s weapons.
“I stressed the importance of finding common ground among the claimants and avoiding the destabilizing cycle of mistrust or escalation”, Kerry said.
China, which has multiple competing claims with other countries in the resource-rich sea, has angered several neighbours by constructing artificial islands on claimed reefs, and building runways and other facilities on them.
The North Korea issue dominated the talks between the two, Kerry said. USA officials vowed to continue maneuvers to protect freedom of navigation and overflight.
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China insists any disputes should be handled bilaterally. “Worldwide law grants all sovereign states the right of self protection and self defence, and it has nothing to do with the so-called “militarization”, said Wang.
