- Title: Chinese Foreign Minister calls on North Korea to stop missile tests
- Date: 8th March 2017
- Summary: ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** MEDIA SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER WANG YI SAYING: "As a first step, North Korea should suspend nuclear activity, and the U.S. and South Korea should also suspend large-scale military drills, and with both sides stopping, avoid the current security dilemma and make all sides to return to the negotiating ta
- Embargoed: 22nd March 2017 06:39
- Keywords: China North Korea missile tests
- Location: BEIJING, CHINA
- City: BEIJING, CHINA
- Country: China
- Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA002673M9FP
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on North Korea on Wednesday (March 8) to stop nuclear and missile tests and for the United States and South Korea to stop joint military drills that the isolated North regards as preparation for war.
North Korea launched four ballistic missiles on Monday (March 6) in response to the military exercises. Wang said those tests and drills were causing tensions on the Korean peninsula to increase like two "accelerating trains coming toward each other".
"As a first step, North Korea should suspend nuclear activity, and the U.S. and South Korea should also suspend large-scale military drills, and with both sides stopping, avoid the current security dilemma and make all sides to return to the negotiating table. Later, based on a dual-track strategy, we will realise denuclearisation and establish a peace mechanism on the peninsula to simultaneously and equally resolve the concerns of all parties," Wang said at his annual news conference on the sidelines of the meeting of China's parliament in Beijing.
"We are still willing to be a switchman and bring the peninsula's nuclear issue back on the negotiation track. I want to emphasise, holding nuclear weapons won't bring security, using military force is not the way out. There remains a chance of resuming talks, there is still hope for peace," he added.
North Korea fired four missiles into the sea off Japan's northwest coast , angering South Korea and Japan with the latest in a series of ballistic missile and nuclear tests in defiance of United Nations resolutions in recent months.
The United States had started to deploy the first elements of its advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system to South Korea after the North's latest tests, U.S. Pacific Command said on Tuesday (March 7).
The deployment of the anti-missile defense system was likely to deepen a brewing conflict between South Korea and China, which has angrily opposed the THAAD deployment as destroying the regional security balance.
"The scope of THAAD anti-missile system's monitoring and early warning reaches far beyond the peninsula and its attempt to undermine China's strategic security is known by all. So bringing in THAAD is obviously a wrong choice, which is against the way of being neighbours and perhaps may bring South Korea into a less secure position. So we advise certain forces within Korea not to obstinately stick to this course, otherwise the outcome will only bring harm harm to others and oneself," Wang said.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of a skirmish in a Beijing suburb that sparked an all-out Sino-Japanese war and the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Japan and China.
"In terms of China-Japan relationship, our position is consistent and clear. We are of course willing to improve relations with Japan to benefit the people of the two countries, but the Japanese side must cure itself of its anxiety, have a rational view and acceptance of the reality that China is continuously developing and becoming revitalized," he said.
Talking about the disputed South China Sea issue, Wang said a first draft of a long mooted code of conduct for behaviour has been completed, which China and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries were all satisfied with.
But in a nod to the U.S. and its regular freedom of navigation naval operations in the region, Wang said those who still wanted to "stir up trouble" will be condemned by countries in the region.
"So at this moment, if someone still wants to make waves and stir up trouble, it will lose ground and be boycotted by countries in the region. We definitely will not allow this stable situation, which has been hard to come by, be damaged or interfered with," he said.
Wang also mentioned that Taiwan's formal relations with its dwindling number of allies around the world lack a basis in international law and will have "no future". - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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