South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Russian President Vladimir Putin called for efforts to stop North Korea from making any further provocations Wednesday, calling it the most urgent challenge facing their countries and the rest of the world.
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The Russian leader also lashed out at the United States, saying it was preposterous for Washington to ask for Moscow’s help with North Korea after sanctioning Russian companies whom U.S officials accused of violating North Korea sanctions. A draft sanctions resolution was circulated to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday.
During the phone conversation, Xi and Trump exchanged their views on the current situation on the peninsula.
Beijing has said reining in North Korea is not chiefly its responsibility, and has expressed doubts that United Nations economic sanctions, which it has backed, will resolve the situation.
For China, on the other hand, the end result is less important than the dialogue itself.
“He’s not my bride”, Putin told reporters at an economic summit in the Chinese city of Xiamen. “It could lead to a global, planetary catastrophe and a huge loss of human life”.
But Putin, speaking in China on Tuesday, cautioned against “military hysteria” and said that the only way to resolve the crisis was through diplomacy.
“And we’re likely to see some version of this continuing with the application of new sanctions”.
On Sunday, North Korea announced it had successfully conducted its sixth weapon test, which according to readings of the tremors appeared to be the most powerful weapon Pyongyang has tested. But all of them are far larger than the 15-kiloton U.S. bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.
Putin also blasted calls for Russian Federation to join sanctions against North Korea shortly after slapping Russian Federation itself with broad financial sanctions.
It calls for the UN Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea, ban the country’s exports of textiles, ban the hiring of North Korean workers overseas and place the haed of the North Korean regime, Kim Jong-un, under an asset freeze and travel ban.
“The president ordered the government to work out additional sources of financing and managerial actions for the for comprehensive development of the country’s Far East”. Those missiles, successfully tested twice in July, have the ability to reach the United States mainland, North Korea says.
Weapons experts say it’s nearly impossible to verify if the warhead and missile could be successfully paired unless North Korea were to actually fire a nuclear-tipped ICBM.
At the Security Council meeting, China’s ambassador Liu Jieyi warned that the crisis was worsening and emphasised the need for dialogue and a diplomatic solution.
Such action would provoke extreme objections from key regional powers, China and Russian Federation, who would likely accuse the U.S. of fueling an arms race.
“The idea that some have suggested a so-called “freeze for freeze” is insulting”, United States ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said Tuesday.
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The only way forward with the rogue regime is through diplomatic means, he argued. “We certainly won’t”, she declared. “Everyone knows that and everyone in North Korea knows that”. Expecting China to act based on U.N. Security Council consensus alone will no longer be sufficient, particularly with Russian Federation playing spoiler right now.
