Chinese media attacks US ‘arrogance’ over North Korea
Communist Party’s newspaper warns America it must help lower tensions after UN Security Council votes to punish Pyongyang for missile tests
Chinese state media has stressed the limits of new United Nations sanctions on North Korea, while criticising the United States for its “arrogance” and saying Washington needed to understand it also has a role in lessening tensions.
The UN Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday that could slash its US$3 billion annual export revenue by a third.
The US-drafted resolution bans North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood following Pyongyang’s two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July. It also prohibits countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean labourers working abroad, bans new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in existing joint ventures.
In a front page commentary published on Monday, the overseas edition of the Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said North Korea’s open flouting of UN rules with its missile launches meant that it had to be punished, but sanctions had to be targeted.
“Sanctions to the greatest possible extent must avoid causing negative impacts to ordinary people and to third countries, and avoid bringing disaster to the country in question’s normal and legal trade and business exchanges with the outside world, people’s normal lives and the humanitarian situation,” it wrote.