The US demanded that China cut off all oil exports to North Korea after the country’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test, warning that Washington would force action if Beijing fails to do so.
US President Donald Trump called Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “and told him that we have come to the point that China must cut off the oil from North Korea,” US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said at an emergency session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
While saying “our hopes are that China will show leadership and follow through,” Haley issued a warning: “China can do this on its own, or we can take the oil situation into our own hands.”
Photo: EPA-EFE / North Korean Central News Agency
Pyongyang launched an ICBM early on Wednesday — its third this year.
The Security Council meeting was injected with new urgency as experts concurred with North Korea’s boast that the test showed its missiles could now reach anywhere in the US.
Haley did not specify how the US would stop oil exports to Kim Jong-un’s regime, saying only that the missile launch “brings the world closer to war, not farther from it.”
While the US does not seek war with North Korea, “if war comes, make no mistake: the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed,” Haley said.
Trump indicated yesterday morning that Beijing’s effort to influence Kim had so far failed.
“The Chinese Envoy, who just returned from North Korea, seems to have had no impact on Little Rocket Man,” Trump tweeted, using a mocking name to refer to Kim. “Hard to believe his people, and the military, put up with living in such horrible conditions. Russia and China condemned the launch.”
Trump said in a tweet on Wednesday said that he had told Xi “additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today.”
By the end of the day no new sanctions had been announced, although Haley’s warning might have conveyed the president’s intended message.
Envoys at the Security Council fell into familiar camps, with the US, the UK and Japan on one side, placing full blame for tensions on North Korea, while China and Russia spread blame more widely.
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia questioned whether the US really wanted a peaceful solution on the Korean Peninsula, saying recently announced military drills had squandered hopes for talks during a lull in North Korean activity.
Such moves raise questions “about the sincerity of Washington” when the US says it wants a peaceful solution, he said.
Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Wu Haitao (吳海濤) again offered a proposal that the US has repeatedly rejected: that the North freeze its nuclear activity in exchange for the US and the South suspending military drills.
In Moscow yesterday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the main question now is finding a solution to the crisis rather then cutting all ties with Pyongyang.
Additional reporting by Reuters
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS