China: ‘Stop irritating each other’
Print Edition
CHINA is calling all parties in the Korean standoff to stay calm and “stop irritating each other,” a day after North Korea said the United States was pushing the region to the brink of nuclear war.
The US has sent a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Korean waters and a pair of strategic US bombers this week flew training drills with the South Korean and Japanese air forces in another show of strength.
Asked about the bomber drills and North Korea’s response, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the situation was “highly complex” and sensitive.
“The urgent task is to lower temperatures and resume talks,” he told reporters.
“We again urge all relevant parties to remain calm and exercise restraint, stop irritating each other, work hard to create an atmosphere for contact and dialogue between all sides, and seek a return to the correct path of dialogue and negotiation as soon as possible.”
The bombers’ flight came as US President Donald Trump raised eyebrows when he said he would be “honored” to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the right circumstances, and as his CIA director landed in South Korea for talks.
North Korea said the bombers conducted “a nuclear bomb dropping drill against major objects” in its territory at a time when Trump and “other US warmongers are crying out for making a preemptive nuclear strike” on North Korea.
“The reckless military provocation is pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula closer to the brink of nuclear war,” KCNA said on Tuesday.
Tension on the Korean Peninsula has been high for weeks, driven by concern that North Korea might conduct its sixth nuclear test in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
In a phone call with his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged all sides to exercise restraint and to return to the correct path of talks as soon as possible, state radio reported.
The US military’s THAAD anti-missile defence system has reached initial operational capacity in South Korea, US officials said, though it would not be fully operational for some months.
China has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the system, whose powerful radar it fears could reach inside Chinese territory.
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