China said the US should show a more attractive and pragmatic approach to dealing with North Korea.
China’s UN ambassador on Friday called on the United States to be more flexible in its dealings with North Korea, diplomats said, as Beijing denounced Pyongyang’s missile launch with a US-draft Security Council joint resolution. joined with others to quash the statement, diplomats said.
Kim Jong Un’s regime conducted an unprecedented seven weapons tests in January, including launching its most powerful missile since 2017 as it indicated it could resume long-range and nuclear testing.
Diplomats told AFP that Washington had proposed a statement condemning those launches, but China and Russia refused to sign it along with other countries.
China’s ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, said of US officials before a closed-door meeting called at Washington’s request on North Korea, “If they want to see some new breakthroughs, they must show more honesty and resilience.” “
“They should come up with a more attractive and more pragmatic, more flexible approach, policies and actions and accommodate the concerns of the DPRK,” Zhang told reporters, using the initials of the North’s official name.
The Chinese official noted that as a result of former US President Donald Trump’s policy on North Korea, Pyongyang had suspended nuclear tests and international ballistic missile launches.
However, in recent months, Zhang lamented, “we have seen a vicious cycle of confrontation, condemnation, sanctions.”
China and Russia have been blocking council action on North Korea, and last year proposed a resolution that would ease sanctions on Pyongyang on humanitarian grounds, but the draft has not been voted on because of a lack of support.
“At least we are doing something to improve further and prevent tensions from escalating,” Zhang said.
– ‘ongoing silence’ –
After the meeting, US envoy to the world body Linda Thomas-Greenfield said a Sino-Russian proposal to ease sanctions would effectively reward North Korea for “bad behaviour”.
“There is no reason for this council to reward him for nine tests in a month and almost the same number of tests in previous years,” he told reporters.
“To spend millions of dollars on military tests when your people are starving shows that this country doesn’t care about its people.”
Friday’s meeting on North Korea was the third meeting in a span of a month.
Last January 20, eight council members – Albania, Brazil, Britain, France, Ireland, Norway, the United Arab Emirates and the United States – issued a joint statement with Japan condemning North’s tests.
The other seven council members – China, Gabon, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mexico and Russia – refused to sign.
On Friday, the same eight countries and Japan, again led by Washington, issued a new statement, reiterating a call for North Korea to “stop its destabilizing actions and return to dialogue.”
“We continue to urge the DPRK to respond positively to proposals from the United States and others to meet without preconditions,” it said.
The statement also called on other members of the Security Council, “The cost of the Council’s ongoing silence is enormous.”
“This would encourage the DPRK to continue to disregard the international community, normalize violations of Security Council resolutions, further destabilize the region and threaten international peace and security,” it said.
North Korea on Friday sent “heartfelt congratulations” to its Chinese ally for the Beijing Olympics, a message that experts consider a possible sign of a halt to missile firing during the sporting event.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to hold trilateral talks on North Korea on February 12 with South Korea and Japan in Hawaii.
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