Tillerson urges China to cut off North Korea’s oil supply to halt nuclear weapons programme
An oil cut-off by China was taken off the table to pass a new UN Security Council resolution against Beijing’s neighbour and traditional ally
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged China to cut off North Korea’s oil supply as a next step in efforts to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme, a move that was taken off the table to pass a new UN Security Council resolution against Beijing’s neighbour and traditional ally.
“I am hopeful that China, as a great country, a world power, will decide on their own and will take it upon themselves to use that very powerful tool of oil supply to persuade North Korea to reconsider its current path towards weapons development,” Tillerson said in London, at a press conference with his UK counterpart Boris Johnson.
“That is a very powerful tool that has been used in the past, and we hope China will not reject that or discard that as a very powerful tool that they alone really have the ability to assert,” he said.