Blinken asks China to pressure North Korea into abandoning nuclear programme
- US Secretary of State, on trip to Seoul, says China’s economic ties with Pyongyang give it ‘tremendous influence’ and a ‘shared interest’ in ending nuclear programme
- Hours earlier, North Korean official Choe Son-hui had blasted the Biden administration’s attempts to contact Pyongyang as a ‘cheap trick’
“Virtually all of North Korea’s economic relationships, its trade … go through China so it has tremendous influence, and I think it has a shared interest in making sure that we do something about North Korea’s nuclear programme and about the increasingly dangerous ballistic missile programme,” Blinken said.
He said he would press Beijing to intervene when he meets Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday.
“Beijing has an interest, a clear self-interest in helping to pursue the denuclearisation of DPRK,” Blinken said, referring to the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“Because it is a source of instability, it’s a source of danger and obviously a threat to us and our partners, but China has a real interest in helping to deal with this,” he added.
