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Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors are seen as
they arrive at Seongju, South Korea, September 7, 2017. Lee
Jong-hyeon/News1 via REUTERS |
BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) – China said on Thursday it agreed the United
Nations Security Council should take further actions against North
Korea in the wake of its latest nuclear test, while continuing to push
for more dialogue to resolve the crisis on the Korean peninsula.
The United States wants the U.N. Security Council to impose an oil
embargo on North Korea, ban its exports of textiles and the hiring of
North Korean laborers abroad, and subject leader Kim Jong Un to an asset
freeze and travel ban, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters
on Wednesday.
Pressure from Washington has ratcheted up since North Korea conducted
its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sunday. That test, along with a
series of missile launches, showed Pyongyang was close to achieving its
goal of developing a powerful nuclear weapon that could reach the United
States.
U.S. President Donald Trump has urged China to do more to rein in its
neighbor, which has pursued its weapons programs in defiance of U.N.
sanctions and international condemnation.
China said on Thursday it hoped North Korea refrained from further challenging the international consensus.
“Given the new developments on the Korean peninsula, China agrees
that the UN Security Council should make a further response and take
necessary measures,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters,
without elaborating.
“Any new actions taken by the international community against the
DPRK should serve the purpose of curbing the DPRK’s nuclear and missile
programs, while at the same time be conducive to restarting dialogue and
consultation,” he said, using the initials of North Korea’s official
name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
China is by far North Korea’s biggest trading partner, accounting for
92 percent of two-way trade last year. It also provides tonnes of oil
and fuel to the impoverished regime.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he had an executive order
ready for Trump to sign that would impose sanctions on any country that
trades with Pyongyang if the United Nations does not put additional
sanctions on North Korea.
THAAD DEPLOYMENT
Amid the rising tensions, Seoul installed the four remaining
launchers of the U.S. anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense
(THAAD) system on a former golf course in the south early on Thursday.
Two launchers had already been deployed.
More than 30 people were wounded when around 8,000 South Korean
police broke up a blockade of about 300 villagers and civic groups
opposed to the THAAD system deployment, fire officials said.
“It is very unfortunate there some wounded, but it was an inevitable
choice in order to protect the lives of the people in this situation
made serious by North Korea’s recent nuclear test,” South Korean
Interior and Safety Minister Kim Boo-kyum told reporters.
The decision to deploy the THAAD system has drawn strong objections
from China, which believes its radar could be used to look deeply into
its territory and will upset the regional security balance.
China said it had lodged another stern protest over the THAAD deployment on Thursday.
“We again urge South Korea and the United States to take seriously
China’s and regional nations’ security interests and concerns, stop the
relevant deployment progress, and remove the relevant equipment,”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular media briefing.
“China has already lodged stern representations with South Korea over this,” he said.
MOON, ABE MEET
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon
Jae-in spoke at a regional meeting in the eastern Russian city of
Vladivostok and agreed to try to persuade China and Russia to cut off
oil to North Korea as much as possible, according to South Korean
officials.
The European Union’s foreign and defense ministers will discuss
further sanctions for North Korea on Thursday, the bloc’s top diplomat
said ahead of an EU ministers’ meeting in the Estonian capital.
However, sanctions have so far done little to stop North Korea
boosting its nuclear and missile capacity as it faces off with Trump.
China and Russia have advocated a “freeze for freeze” plan, where the
United States and South Korea would stop major military exercises in
exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programs, but neither side
appears willing to budge.
South Korean Marines wrapped up a three-day firing drill on Thursday
aimed at protecting its islands just south of the border with North
Korea, while the air force will finish up a week-long drill on Friday.
North Korea says it needs to develop its weapons to defend itself against what it sees as U.S. aggression.
South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with
North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a
peace treaty.
For a graphic on nuclear North Korea, click:
http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/NORTHKOREA-MISSILES/010031V7472/index.html
(Additional reporting by Soyoung Kim in SEOUL, Christian
Shepherd and Vincent Lee in BEIJING, Steve Holland, Eric Walsh, Jeff
Mason and Jim Oliphant in WASHINGTON and Gabriela Baczynska, Robin
Emmott and David Mardiste in TALLINN; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing
by Nick Macfie and Paul Tait)