US, South Korea Urge China to Play ‘Constructive’ Role in Reining in North Korea

People watch a television broadcast showing a file image of a North Korean rocket launch at the Seoul Railway Station on May 31, 2023. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

The United States and South Korea have called on China to play “a constructive role” in tackling North Korea’s missile launches following Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent talks with Chinese diplomats in Beijing.

South Korean nuclear envoy Kim Gunn and his U.S. counterpart, Sung Kim, spoke by phone on Monday to discuss North Korean nuclear threats and pledged to thwart North Korea’s financing of nuclear programs.

They agreed to repatriate North Korean nationals working abroad and curb North Korea’s illicit cyber activities—tactics used by the regime to generate funding for its nuclear weapons program—according to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry.

The two envoys said that Blinken’s recent talks with China’s top diplomats served as “an important opportunity” to reaffirm that North Korea’s denuclearization is in “the common interest of the international community.”

They vowed to continue pressing China to “play a constructive role” in reining in North Korea’s nuclear and missile launches while maintaining open lines of communication with Beijing on bilateral matters.

China Capable of Stopping North Korea

This came just a week after Blinken concluded his two-day trip to Beijing on June 19, where he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other top Chinese diplomats.

Blinken told reporters that he had urged the Chinese communist regime to leverage its influence to stop North Korea’s “increasingly reckless actions and rhetoric.”

Blinken also said that he had told Xi that “China is in a unique position to press Pyongyang to engage in dialogue and to end its dangerous behavior,” referring to North Korea’s capital city.

In his interview with CBS News, Blinken said China must recognize that the United States and its allies will “take steps” to defend themselves if it fails to rein in North Korea’s nuclear program. He had also relayed this message to Xi during their meeting.

“These are steps that are not directed at China, including more defense assets right in the region—exercises, work together—not directed at China, but that China probably won’t like,” he told the news agency.

While Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that China would continue to play a constructive role in promoting the political settlement of the Korean Peninsula, she claimed that China is not primarily responsible for changing North Korea’s behavior.

“The crux of the Korean Peninsula issues is very clear. All parties need to face the crux of the issues squarely, step up to their respective responsibilities, and address the legitimate concerns of all parties in a balanced way through meaningful dialogue,” Mao told reporters.

China is a major ally of North Korea, accounting for 90 percent of its bilateral trade. China and Russia had previously vetoed a vote pushed by the United States to strengthen sanctions on North Korea.

Korean Peninsula on ‘Brink Of Nuclear War’

However, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry accused the United States of bringing the Korean Peninsula “closer to the brink of nuclear war” due to its joint military drills with South Korea, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on June 26.

North Korea vowed to bolster its “defensive capabilities” and warned that a war on the Korean Peninsula would rapidly expand into “a world war and a thermonuclear war unprecedented in the world.”

“This will entail the most catastrophic and irreversible consequences to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia and the rest of the world,” the ministry was quoted as saying by KCNA.

A test launch of a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasong-18 at an undisclosed location in this still image of a photo used in a video released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 14, 2023. KCNA via Reuters TV

North Korea conducted a series of missile launches this year, including one involving a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-18, and tested its underwater drone, which the regime said is capable of generating a “super-scale radioactive tsunami.”

China Uses North Korea as ‘Buffer State’

The United States has persisted in engaging in “direct talks” with North Korea without preconditions in favor of a diplomatic solution, but North Korea has rebuffed these efforts.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on July 13 that China deters North Korea from participating in denuclearization efforts because Beijing “benefits from Chairman Kim [Jong Un] continuing to hold his nuclear weapons.”

Pompeo is one of the key persons that made the historical Trump–Kim summits. Then-U.S. President Donald Trump met with Kim three times in Singapore, Hanoi, and South Korea in 2018 and 2019. At the last summit, Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot in North Korea.

During a video interview at the Asian Leadership Conference (ALC) in Seoul, a summit hosted by South Korean media Chosun Ilbo, Pompeo said the Chinese regime uses North Korea as “an important buffer state” because Washington then has to spend energies to defend East Asia against North Korea’s nuclear weapons systems.

“In some ways, you can look at the North Korean nuclear weapons as simply an extension of the Chinese nuclear weapons program,” he said.

Nicole Hao contributed to this report.