China is not using its political and economic muscle to pressure North Korea to re-enter multilateral negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear weapons drive, US President George W. Bush's chief negotiator to the talks said Tuesday.
Christopher Hill, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, also said that the US and China were split over North Korea's alleged role as a nuclear proliferator and the prospect of its illicit atomic weapons falling into terrorist hands.
Hill gave a presentation titled "Dealing with North Korea's Nuclear Programs" at a hearing before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
PHOTO: AP
Replying to remarks by panel chairman Senator Dick Lugar, Hill said: "I agree with you that China has been reluctant to use the full range of leverage that we believe China has.
"China has had North Korea as a close friend and ally for some 50 years now, and China has very close political connections, very close personal connections with the leadership, very close economic connections.
"And our request to China is to do what it has to do in order to bring them to the table," said Hill, the US leader to negotiations among the two Koreas, US, Japan, Russia and China.
North Korea has refused to participate in the nuclear talks after attending three rounds hosted by China, citing US "hostility." It has also rejected a US-led aid-for-disarmament plan and has instead been boasting about its nuclear prowess.
Hill said the US was not going to dictate terms with China on how to deal with North Korea.
China and South Korea have reportedly opposed US moves to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear arms, rejecting calls for sanctions or ceasing crucial economic aid, but Hill said they were united in wanting to disarm Pyongyang of its atomic weapons.
"We're not going to tell them [China] whether they need to use economic leverage on their neighbor. But we're going to expect that, as the host to the process, that they figure out a way to get everyone to the table," he said.
"While there are differences on tactics, where the Chinese are reluctant to use pressure and, Mr. Chairman, as you said, the South Koreans are also reluctant to use that type of direct pressure, I want to emphasize there's absolutely no daylight between us on the issue of disarming North Korea," he added.
Democratic Senator Barack Obama asked Hill if China could still be a "sufficient leverage point" in getting the hardline Stalinist state back to the six-party talks or whether the US needed to work through other channels.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing