Kerry, speaking to reporters after meeting Wang, said China, the USA and other members of the council were obligated to take action after the 6 January nuclear test by North Korea.
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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.
At the same time, China has made it clear to USA officials, foreign policy experts and journalists that although its patience is running out with North Korea, it believes it is up to the United States to configure a diplomatic initiative toward Pyongyang. Wang said China supports a new United Nations resolution opposing Pyongyangs nuclear program, and will discuss possible sanctions.
“This is a threat the USA must take extremely seriously”, Mr Kerry said of North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal at a news conference with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi. Now that China has more or less promised to sit on its hands, Pyongyang will push ahead full steam in developing a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on a missile and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
“Sanctions are not an end in themselves”. There, he called on ASEAN countries to present a united front in dealing with China’s increasing assertiveness over disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea.
As a result, Kerry added, “North Korea poses an overt threat, a declared threat, to the world and it has stated its intention to develop a thermonuclear weapon”. The South’s president, Park Geun-hye, said after North Korea’s nuclear test three weeks ago that she would consider accepting the US defense system.
With the Korean dispute only deteriorating since six-party disarmament talks broke down in 2009, the US has ratcheted up pressure on China, which wields a Security Council veto and supplies most of the country’s food and energy imports.
He noted that Iran, which does not have nuclear weapons, has been the target of more sanctions than North Korea has been, despite its defiance of worldwide condemnation of its nuclear activities.
Several neighbours have angered by assembling artificial islands on reefs that were claimed, and building runways along with other facilities to them.
“The United States will take all necessary steps to defend the American people and honor our security commitments to allies in the region”, he said.
Chinese officials have told their US counterparts that they were not informed of the timing of the test and that it came as a surprise.
He said China and the United States should manage the sensitive issues in a constructive manner to prevent them from interfering the bilateral cooperation.
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Jin Canrong, worldwide relations professor at Renmin University, said tensions stemming from the South China Sea wouldn’t likely factor into Beijing’s decision-making process on North Korea.
