China says it’s not to blame for crisis in North Korea, as US piles on the pressure
Vice-minister for commerce says Trump must keep Sino-US trade separate from problem on Korean peninsula
China pushed back on Monday over US pressure to rein in Pyongyang, saying it was not to blame for the Korean peninsula nuclear crisis.
Washington and its allies are stepping up the pressure on Beijing to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea after it launched another intercontinental ballistic missile at the weekend, which it said proved its ability to strike the US mainland.
In an apparent response to Trump’s tweet on Saturday that he was “very disappointed” with China, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday that the problem did not arise in China and that all sides needed to work for a solution.
China’s UN ambassador said on Monday it is primarily up to the United States and North Korea, not Beijing, to reduce tensions and work toward resuming talks to end Pyongyang’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programmes.
“(The United States and North Korea) hold the primary responsibility to keep things moving, to start moving in the right direction, not China,” China’s UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi told a news conference to mark the end of Beijing’s presidency of the UN Security Council in July.