China Agrees With US On North Korea Sanctions
Please note that we are not authorised to provide any investment advice. The content on this page is for information purposes only.
The United States and China have reached an agreement for a new round of “tough” sanctions against North Korea, underlining Beijing’s deepening frustrations with Pyongyang after a third nuclear test last month.
According to China’s U.N. ambassador, Li Baodong, the U.N. Security Council is set to vote on Thursday on a draft sanctions resolution, which was agreed to by Washington and Beijing after three weeks of negotiations.
The United States and China have reached an agreement for a new round of “tough” sanctions against North Korea, underlining Beijing’s deepening frustrations with Pyongyang after a third nuclear test last month.
According to China’s U.N. ambassador, Li Baodong, the U.N. Security Council is set to vote on Thursday on a draft sanctions resolution, which was agreed to by Washington and Beijing after three weeks of negotiations.
Li added that Beijing had been displeased by North Korea’s Feb 12 nuclear test, though he urged caution against responding too harshly in order to protect North Korea’s impoverished population.
“We support action taken by the council, but we think that action should be proportionate, should be balanced and focused on bringing down the tension and focusing on the diplomatic track,” Li said, as cited by Reuters.
[quote]”A strong signal must be sent out that a nuclear test is against the will of the international community,” he added.[/quote]China is North Korea’s closest ally and has a history of resisting tough sanctions on its neighbour. However, diplomats say there had been “intensive and productive” talks between Washington and Beijing over North Korea in recent weeks, especially given North Korea’s continued defiance against international sanctions.
Beijing’s cooperation in particular was considered to be essential as most of the companies and banks that North Korea is believed to work with are based in China.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said that the newly agreed upon sanctions would target “the illicit activities of North Korean diplomatic personnel, North Korean banking relationships, (and) illicit transfers of bulk cash.”
[quote]”North Korea will be subject to some of the toughest sanctions imposed by the United Nations,” she told reporters.[/quote]In response, the Korean People’s Army Supreme Command has threatened to cancel the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
“We will completely nullify the Korean armistice,” said a statement on North Korea’s KCNA agency, quoting a military spokesman.
Related: North Korea’s Brilliant Bluff – Why Kim Still Holds All The Trump Cards: George Friedman
Related: The Time To Re-Engage North Korea Is Now: Dan Steinbock
Later, the U.S. warned Pyongyang against further provocations, calling Pyongyang’s latest threats not new and helpful.
“Rather than threaten to abrogate and threaten to move in some new direction, the world would be better served … if he (Kim Jong Un) would engage in a legitimate dialogue, legitimate negotiations, in order to resolve not just American concerns, but the concerns of the Japanese and the South Koreans and the Russians and the Chinese, everybody in the region,” said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, according to the Associated Press.
China’s Li also called for increased dialogue.
[quote]“Military solutions aren’t a solution,” he told reporters. “We are concerned about the peace viability in the region and … around the whole world. So that’s why we encourage all the parties to sit down and have a serious talk with each other and address their differences through diplomatic means.”[/quote]Prominent academics are also calling Beijing to rethink its close relationship with Pyongyang. In an op-ed piece for the Financial Times, Deng Yuwen, a senior academic at the Communist Party’s Central Party School, said that “China should consider abandoning North Korea”.
Related: China Sees “Great Potential” in Economic Cooperation with North Korea
Related: China Reaffirms ‘Friendship’ With North Korea
Related:
Still, most experts believe that such a step is unlikely.
[quote]“Despite all these debates, China is likely to fall back on the same geostrategic consideration of wanting North Korea as a buffer on its border,” said Christopher Johnson, a former CIA China analyst, to FT.[/quote]
