bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Sarah Zheng

China’s ambassador to the US has said Beijing will not accept a nuclear armed North Korea amid the crisis over Pyongyang’s rapidly escalating weapons programme.
Cui Tiankai’s comments on Friday came after some experts and observers have said global powers should accept that Pyongyang has nuclear weapons and policy should now be directed at ensuring they do not use them.
Here are three reasons why China is so opposed to Kim Jong-un’s regime having nuclear arms:
1. Fears of a regional arms race
Observers say China is extremely wary of its neighbours obtaining a credible nuclear arsenal as it poses an obvious risk to its own security. It has also prompted concerns in Beijing that a regional arms race would develop, with South Korea and Japan feeling the need to obtain their own nuclear weapons.




South Korea’s official policy is to pursue a nuclear-free Korean peninsula after giving up its own nuclear weapons programme in the 1970s, although some experts believe it still has the technical capacity and equipment to produce them.
China rejects letting South Korea, Japan have nuclear arms
South Korea says its policy remains unchanged, but Deng Yuwen, a senior researcher at the Charhar Institute think tank, wrote in a commentary that Seoul and the US were discussing reintroducing American weaponry with nuclear warheads.
“China will have no choice, but to accept South Korea developing nuclear weapons,” Deng wrote.
2. Undermining non-proliferation regime
China is a signatory of the international Non-Proliferation Treaty aimed at limiting the spread of nuclear weapons and championing nuclear disarmament. Japan, the United States and 185 other UN member countries have also signed. 
China accepting North Korea as a nuclear state would be a surprise as other emerging nuclear powers such as India and Pakistan have not been accepted under the non-proliferation regime.
“If other emerging nuclear powers such as India, Pakistan and Israel have yet to be accepted as nuclear weapon states under the NPT regime, why should North Korea be an exceptional case?” said Yue Gang, a retired Chinese colonel and military expert.
3. Safety fears
The North Korean regime is bellicose and unpredictable and Deng said Beijing fears its nuclear weapons programme could lead to radiation leaks into its territory.
Can Donald Trump build a united front at the UN against North Korea’s nuclear threat?
In a worst-case scenario, the weapons could be turned against China itself, said Deng. “If relations between China and North Korea deteriorate further, no one can guarantee that Kim will not use nuclear weapons against China.”
Robert Manning, an international security expert at the US think tank the Atlantic Council, told the South China Morning Post: “I think it’s useful for the US to remind China that North Korean missiles go in all directions.”


North Korea’s Kim reveals soldiers cleared mines for Russia, in rare public statement

Why South Korea is powerless to revive Trump-Kim nuclear talks

Is China changing tack and accepting North Korea as a nuclear-armed state?

North Korean air force to gain ‘strategic assets’ amid heightened tensions in peninsula

North Korea nuclear crisis

Three reasons China will not accept a nuclear armed North Korea

A file picture of a North Korean Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile test launched last month. Photo: Associated Press

***ONE TIME USE ONLY*** D1H24M China's Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai listens to a question at the 23rd Session of the US China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade conference December 19, 2012 in Washington, DC.

This undated image distributed on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017, by the North Korean government, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at an undisclosed location. North Korea's latest nuclear test was part theater, part propaganda and maybe even part fake. But experts say it was also a major display of something very real: Pyongyang's mastery of much of the know-how it needs to reach its decades-old goal of becoming a full-fledged nuclear state. The jury is still out on whether North Korea tested, as it claims, a hydrogen bomb ready to be mounted on an ICBM. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)

China rejects letting South Korea, Japan have nuclear arms

A file picture of surface-to-air missile interceptors deployed at the US Yokota Air Base on the outskirts of Tokyo. Photo: Associated Press

(170630) -- WASHINGTON D.C., June 30, 2017 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai addresses an event marking the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China in Washington D.C., capital of the United States, June 29, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) (zcc)

This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on September 16, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) inspecting a launching drill of the medium-and-long range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 at an undisclosed location. Kim vowed to complete North Korea's nuclear force despite sanctions, saying the final goal of his country's weapons development is "equilibrium of real force" with the United States, state media reported on September 16. / AFP PHOTO / KCNA VIA KNS / STR / - South Korea OUT / REPUBLIC OF KOREA OUT ---EDITORS NOTE--- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO/KCNA VIA KNS" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS THIS PICTURE WAS MADE AVAILABLE BY A THIRD PARTY. AFP CAN NOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, LOCATION, DATE AND CONTENT OF THIS IMAGE. THIS PHOTO IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY AFP. /