China warns UN not to add ‘fuel to the fire’ after North Korean missile test
- Beijing’s North Korea envoy Liu Xiaoming signals reluctance to back further sanctions
- Pyongyang recently conducted its first ballistic missile test since 2017
Liu, who recently visited the United States and met White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell, posted on Twitter that the Security Council should play a “constructive role for the political settlement” of issues related to the Korean peninsula.
US sanctions China, North Korea and Russia entities for weapons proliferation
“Any action it takes should be conducive to de-escalation and dialogue, instead of adding fuel to the fire,” he added.
The United States has been calling on China and Russia, both permanent veto-wielding members of the council, to cooperate in imposing tougher sanctions on North Korea, which test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in March, the first such launch since 2017.
But US special envoy to North Korea Sung Kim told reporters on Wednesday that he cannot yet say “productive discussions” are taking place with the two countries.
The White House has repeatedly said it remains open to diplomacy with North Korea to progress toward the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
But the administration has not received any response from Pyongyang despite multiple attempts to reach out, according to Kim.
