‘China must do more to curb North Korea’: US Secretary of State John Kerry will rally Asia against Pyongyang

US Secretary of State John Kerry began a visit to East Asia on Sunday in which he planned to press China to put more curbs on North Korea after its nuclear test and to urge Southeast Asia to show unity in response to China’s claims in the South China Sea.

Kerry starts what will be a three-day stay in the region in Laos, the 2016 chair the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), after attending the Davos summit in Switzerland and a stop in Saudi Arabia. He will head to Cambodia on Monday night and then on to Beijing for talks on Wednesday with the leadership there.

In Beijing, Kerry is expected to stress the need for a united front in response to this month’s North Korean nuclear test through additional UN sanctions and for a tough unilateral response from China, North Korea’s main ally and neighbour, a senior official of the US state Department said.

“It is very important to present a united front ... but that united front has to be a firm one, not a flaccid one,” the official told journalists travelling with Kerry.

It was particularly important to “cut off avenues of proliferation and retard North Korea’s ability to gain the wherewithal to advance its nuclear and its missile programmes,” the official said, and that meant China doing more.

“North Korea is still engaged in illicit and proliferation activities,” he said. “They have very few avenues for conducting business with the international community that don’t in some fashion involve transiting China.

“Despite the determination and efforts of the Chinese government, clearly there is more that they can do.”

In Beijing Kerry plans “in depth” discussions on the South China Sea, a source of increasing tension between China and Asean countries and the United States due to China’s building of artificial islands suitable for use as military bases, the official said.