China, US to step up cooperation to halt North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme
Pledge made during meeting between China’s premier and Barack Obama at the UN amid global concern over Pyongyang’s nuclear test earlier this month
Premier Li Keqiang has told US President Barack Obama that Beijing supports closer cooperation in the UN Security Council and in enforcement efforts to halt North Korea’s nuclear programme.
This could be a signal Beijing will support tougher sanctions on North Korea after its fifth nuclear test, with China increasingly irked by Pyongyang’s behaviour and its consequences – a decision by Seoul to deploy a US anti-missile system.
North Korea announced its biggest nuclear test earlier this month, and claimed that it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile.
On Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised a ground test of a new rocket engine for launching satellites, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported.
During the meeting between Li and Obama on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly session in New York on Tuesday, “both leaders condemned North Korea’s September 9 nuclear test and resolved to strengthen coordination in achieving the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, a White House statement said.