SEOUL, South Korea (PA) – On Thursday, the top American diplomat pressured China to use its “extraordinary influence” to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear program, hours after the North said it would ignore US offers to resume negotiations.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke at the end of security talks in Seoul, which included Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and South Korean foreign and defense ministers. The so-called “two plus two” meeting, the first of its kind in five years, came as President Joe Biden struggled to restore America’s alliances in Asia in the face of growing challenges in China and North Korea.
“Beijing has a clear personal interest in helping to pursue denuclearization (North Korea) because it is a source of instability. It is a source of danger and obviously a threat to us and our partners, “Blinken told a news conference.
He said Beijing has a “critical role to play” in convincing North Korea to denuclearize, as most of the north’s foreign trade passes through China. Blinken stressed that China is obliged by UN Security Council resolutions to fully implement the sanctions imposed on North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests.
China, the North’s last major ally and the biggest beneficiary of aid, has long been suspected of avoiding the full application of sanctions on the North. Some observers say China believes a unified pro-US Korea set at the door would undermine its strategic interests and worries that a humanitarian disaster in North Korea could push the swarms of refugees flooding across countries.
Earlier on Thursday, Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s first deputy foreign minister, confirmed Blinken’s previous announcement that Washington had reached Pyongyang through several channels since mid-February, but received no response.
Choe called the US enlargement a “time-delaying trick” and said North Korea would continue to drop similar offers for talks unless Washington withdrew hostility. “What has been heard in the United States since the new regime emerged is just a crazy theory of the ‘North Korean threat’ and unfounded rhetoric about ‘complete denuclearization,'” she said.
Asked about Choe’s statement, Blinken said he was aware, but said he was more interested in the comments and thoughts of US allies and partners while on a regional tour. South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong said Thursday’s talks were about the North Korean statement and its intentions. He said South Korea was hoping for an early resumption of US-North Korea talks.
US-led diplomacy focusing on North Korea’s nuclear weapons remains stalled for about two years over disputes over US-led sanctions. Experts are debating whether the United States and its allies should be content with an agreement that would freeze North Korea’s nuclear activities in exchange for relaxing sanctions to prevent its arsenal from growing.
Earlier this week, the strong sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned the United States to “refrain from causing wells,” while criticizing the US-South Korean exercises that her government considers a repeat of the invasion. .
Some experts say that North Korea, which wants to win the easing of sanctions, could further increase animosity with missile tests to increase its leverage in any negotiations with the United States. North Korea’s dying economy is under additional pressure due to the closure of the pandemic border, which significantly reduced its foreign trade and a number of natural disasters last summer.
After talks on Thursday, Blinken, Austin and their South Korean counterparts said in a joint statement that North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile issues are “a priority for the alliance” and reaffirmed a common commitment to address these issues.
Austin said the United States is fully committed to defending South Korea, using “the full range of American capabilities, including our widespread discouragement.” Blinken broke North Korea’s human rights record for the second day in a row, saying North Korean people “continue to be widely and systematically abused by a repressive government.”
On Thursday, Blinken and Austin met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who was once a driving force behind the first US-North Korean nuclear diplomacy in 2018. Moon said Seoul will continue close cooperation with Washington to achieve complete denuclearization. and lasting peace in the Korean Peninsula.
Blinken and Austin are on their first cabinet trip abroad since Biden took office in January. They visited Japan before coming to Seoul.
South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook said in Thursday’s talks that the US side stressed the importance of US-led trilateral security cooperation, which often involves Seoul and Tokyo. He said that South Korea, in principle, agrees with the US opinion. Connections between Seoul and Tokyo have suffered major failures in recent years due to problems arising from Japan’s 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
Blinken said Thursday’s talks discussed China’s role and “we are clearly aware of Beijing’s continued failure to live up to its commitments.”
“And we talked about how aggressive and authoritarian behavior in Beijing causes stability and prosperity in the security of the Pacific region,” he said. “The actions in Beijing make forcing a common approach among our allies even more important at a time when we are seeing a decline in democracy and human rights around the world, including in Burma.”
Blinken will meet with senior Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska, on his way back to Washington, while Austin will travel to New Delhi for talks with Indian officials.
China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, said Beijing did not expect talks in Alaska to resolve all issues between China and the United States, and “we do not have high hopes.” Cu added that he hopes the meeting will be “a start and that the two sides will be able to begin a process of dialogue that is sincere, constructive and realistic.”
During Thursday’s talks, Chung said there was no direct discussion on the issue of South Korea’s accession to a large format of the Indo-Pacific group involving the United States, Japan, Australia and India – known as the Quad. Chung maintained a governmental position that South Korea can join any forum if it values transparency, openness and inclusiveness and serves its national interests.