China joins global calls for N Korea to stop ‘threatening behaviour’: US

SEOUL/PYONGYANG — Hours after North Korea’s failed missile launch, United States national security adviser Lieutenant-General H R McMaster said yesterday an international consensus that includes China has now emerged that Pyongyang’s “threatening behaviour” cannot go on.

This comes as President Donald Trump suggested that China was helping the US formulate a response to the North Korean menace, and that he was refraining from calling Beijing a currency manipulator in part because of that cooperation.

Speaking from Afghanistan on ABC “This Week” programme, Lt-Gen McMaster said: “I think there’s an international consensus now — including the Chinese and the Chinese leadership — that this is a situation that just can’t continue.”

The consensus, including China, is “that this problem is coming to a head. And so it’s time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully”.

Lt-Gen McMaster made a point of stating several times that China — North Korea’s key ally — is now concerned about the reclusive communist state’s behaviour.

“This is someone who has demonstrated his brutality by murdering his own brother, by murdering others in his family, by imprisoning large numbers of people in horrible conditions for no reason, for political reasons,” he said. “So this regime has given the world reason for concern. And that includes the Chinese people and the Chinese leadership as well.”

He said Mr Trump has made it clear that he will not allow the nuclear-armed Pyongyang regime’s “pattern of provocative and destabilising and threatening behaviour” to put the US and its regional allies under threat, adding that the President ultimately will “take action that is in the best interest of the American people”.

Mr Trump turned to Twitter yesterday to underscore the key importance of cooperation with Beijing on Pyongyang’s problem.

Having blasted China throughout his presidential campaign for unfairly manipulating its currency, he tweeted yesterday: “Why would I call China a currency manipulator when they are working with us on the North Korean problem? We will see what happens!”

Earlier, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and China’s top diplomat, Mr Yang Jiechi, exchanged views on the “situation on the Korean peninsula” by phone yesterday, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry cited Mr Yang as saying high-level exchanges between both countries should continue, while differences in opinion should be mutually respected.

Mr Tillerson, on his part, stressed the importance of fostering communication and voiced expectation of further development of US-China ties.

The botched missile launch by North Korea — which was condemned by South Korea and Japan — came a day after Pyongyang held a military parade in its capital to mark the birth anniversary of the nation’s founder, displaying what appeared to be new long-range ballistic missiles.

It also comes amid mounting tensions on the peninsula that led Beijing to warn last week a “storm is about to break” because of rising brinkmanship with Washington over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

“North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at yesterday’s military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile today is a show of force that threatens the whole world,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement as it warned of punitive action if the launch led to further provocations.

Japan meanwhile lodged a diplomatic protest over the failed launch, which took place at North Korea’s east coast of Sinpo.

Sinpo is the site of a North Korean submarine base and where the North has tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile it is developing.

Hours after the failed test, US Vice-President Mike Pence, who is in Seoul at part of a 10-day trip to Asia in what his aides said was a sign of US commitment to its allies in the face of rising tension, said yesterday that the US’ commitment to South Korea remained firm.

Speaking to American and South Korean military members after an Easter church service, Mr Pence said under Mr Trump’s leadership, “our resolve has never been stronger, our commitment to this historic alliance with the courageous people of South Korea has never been stronger and with your help and God’s help, freedom will ever prevail on this peninsula”.

Some 28,500 US troops are stationed in the South.

The White House said yesterday’s test involved a medium-range ballistic missile that failed within four to five seconds after launch, and that it did not involve an intercontinental ballistic missile, said a US foreign adviser travelling with Mr Pence, adding that the launch was not unexpected.

“We had good intelligence before the launch and good intelligence after the launch,” the adviser said on condition of anonymity.

While Washington had a “wide array of tools” at the President’s disposal, “for this particular case, if they (North Korea) took the time and energy to launch a missile that failed, we don’t need to expend any resources against that”, said the adviser.

“It’s a failed test. It follows another failed test. So really no need to reinforce their failure.”

However, the timing of yesterday’s test, coinciding with Mr Pence’s trip and a day after the military parade, would suggest deliberate defiance.

The North launched a ballistic missile earlier this month ahead of a summit between the US and China to discuss the North’s arms programme.

North Korea has a habit of firing off missiles to mark major political anniversaries, or as gestures of defiance to top US officials visiting the region.

Pyongyang’s rogue atomic ambitions have come into sharp focus in recent weeks, with Mr Trump vowing a tough stance against the North and threatening unilateral action if China failed to help curb its neighbour’s nuclear programme.

Mr Trump has diverted the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group towards the Korean peninsula in a show of force aimed at deterring Pyongyang from conducting another nuclear test or launching more missiles. AGENCIES