Press. voanews.com
The United States pushed China during high-level security talks on
Wednesday to step up diplomatic and economic pressure to rein in the Kim Jong
Un regime in North Korea, but defense analysts said Washington may have to
lower its expectations, due to Beijing’s strategic relationship with Pyongyang.
“China understands that the United States regards North Korea as our top
security threat,” said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. "We reiterated to
China that they have a diplomatic responsibility to exert much greater economic
and diplomatic pressure on the regime if they want to prevent further
escalation in the region.”
“Whether it is money laundering, extorting Korean expatriates, or
malicious cyberactivity, North Korea has engaged in a number of criminal
enterprises that help fund its weapons programs," the top American
diplomat added. "We must step up our efforts to help curtail these sources
of revenue." North Korea topped the agenda at the talks Wednesday after a
U.S. student who had been imprisoned by the communist country died this week after
being returned to his family.
Tillerson, Mattis Represent US
The first round of the U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue
included Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis from the U.S. side, meeting
with China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi and General Fang Fenghui, chief of the
People's Liberation Army's joint staff department.
President Donald Trump has lauded China's past efforts to rein in North
Korea, but he acknowledged in a tweet on Wednesday that those efforts have not
achieved the desired results. His comments followed the death on Monday of Otto
Warmbier, 22, who was returned to U.S. custody in a coma after nearly 18 months
of imprisonment by North Korea on a minor charge.
"While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China
to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China
tried!" Trump wrote on Twitter. Mattis said President Trump “represents
the American people’s view of North Korea right now.”
Regime 'Plays Outside the Rules'
“This goes beyond any kind of understanding of law and order, of
humanity, of responsibility toward any human being,” Mattis said. Americans are
frustrated, he continued, with “a regime that provokes, and provokes, and
provokes, and basically plays outside the rules, plays fast and loose with the
truth.”
Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and Special Representative for
North Korea Policy Joseph Yun, the U.S. diplomat who traveled to North Korea to
secure Warmbier's release, plan to attend his funeral in Ohio on Thursday.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on
Wednesday that China has been trying continuously to resolve the North Korean
nuclear crisis, and that its efforts have always been "important and
constructive.”
The United Nations has blacklisted hundreds of North Korean entities,
but many of them try to get business done through China, according to U.S.
officials. The issue is a sticking point between Washington and Beijing that
many experts say deserves frank discussion.
“China might be willing to make changes on the margins of its
relationship with North Korea, but fundamental changes to its strategy are
highly unlikely, because this would threaten the stability of Kim Jong-un's
regime and potentially eliminate the North as a buffer state,” Rand Corporation
senior defense analyst Derek Grossman said.
Grossman said Beijing’s strategic calculus about North Korea should
temper Washington’s expectations of what Trump administration policy can
achieve. The Rand analyst said China's perpetual security concern is reflected
in its proposal that the U.S. and South Korea “freeze” routine joint exercises,
in exchange for Pyongyang suspending its missile and nuclear programs.
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