China Is Stopping The US From Imposing Tougher Sanctions On North Korea

According to South Korea’s foreign ministry, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Japanese and South Korean Foreign Ministers Fumio Kishida and Yun Byung-se in New York on 18 September. This meeting will take place during the annual U.N. General Assembly to discuss putting further pressure on North Korea in response to its latest nuclear test. This in the light of North Korea conducting its fifth and largest nuclear test on 9 September.

North Korea through conducting this test went against the U.N. sanctions that were tightened in March. Although Pyongyang’s main ally in the region China, backed the March resolution, Beijing is against imposing new sanctions. This decision overlaps with China’s opposition to the decision of Washington and Seoul to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THADD) anti-missile system in South Korea. On 13 September, the Foreign Ministers of China and South Korea spoke on the phone, with the former expressing Beijing’s opposition to the North’s latest act while at the same reiterating its disapproval of the planned THADD deployment.

A commentary in Beijing’s official People’s Daily newspaper on Wednesday termed the United States as a troublemaker claiming it has no right to lecture China about taking responsibility for reining in North Korea as hostilities on the peninsula are a result of U.S. actions. United States on the other hand said it is willing to negotiate with Pyongyang if it commits to denuclearisation but the latter has refused to do so. On an interesting note the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to seek former US foe Cuba’s help in responding to North Korea when he visits Havana next week.