BEIJING, July 11: China on Tuesday repeated its rejection of a proposed UN resolution on possible sanctions against North Korea, dashing US and Japanese hopes for quick action over Pyongyang’s missile tests.
A foreign ministry announcement that the draft Security Council resolution was an ‘overreaction’ came amid another flurry of shuttle diplomacy to address the crisis in the wake of last Wednesday’s missile launches.
Separate talks between North and South Korea, and China and the United States, were held a day after a vote on the resolution was postponed by the Council — where China holds the veto power to block it.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu did not mention any veto but said such a legally binding council resolution would ‘undermine the progress’ on North Korean disarmament talks and needed to be thoroughly re-worked.
“China believes this draft resolution represents an overreaction and, if adopted, it will cause a further escalation of the problem,” Mr Jiang said.
The resolution could ‘undermine the progress made in the six-party talks. There should be a substantial revision of the draft,” she said, referring to stalled talks on persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.
President Hu Jintao said China was seriously concerned about tensions over North Korea and called on all parties to refrain from any actions that could inflame the situation.
The secretive state test-launched seven missiles last week in the direction of Japan, which has since pressed for a Council resolution that would clear the way for sanctions and in theory even military action.
South Korea, maintaining its policy of engaging its communist neighbour while condemning the launches, agreed to the high-level talks in the port city of Busan. But it ruled out discussing North Korea’s requests for further fertiliser and rice aid, saying it will instead tackle the missile issue.
The volleys of rhetoric have been accompanied by intensive diplomatic efforts to resolve the standoff with Pyongyang, which has boycotted the six-nation disarmament talks since November.
At the Security Council on Monday, Japan said it had decided to postpone a vote and instead await word from a high-level Chinese delegation currently holding six days of negotiations in the North Korean capital.
US ENVOY IN CHINA: The top US envoy on North Korea, Christopher Hill, returned to Beijing on Tuesday for the second time in a week, making another stop on a busy tour trying to muster diplomatic consensus.
“Obviously we are in a rather crucial period,” Mr Hill told reporters on arrival.
“The Chinese government has an important diplomatic mission going on, so we want to be in close consultation with the Chinese government,” he said.—AFP
