US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan raised concerns about North Korea’s weapons tests and cooperation between North Korea and Russia with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a senior US government official said. He also confirmed that he encourages China to intervene more actively to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. Reporter Ham Ji-ha reports.
A senior White House National Security Council (NSC) official said Sullivan met with Director Wang Yi to convey concerns about North Korea’s recent actions and asked for China’s active cooperation.
In a telephone briefing on the 27th, the official confirmed that the North Korean issue was included on both sides’ agendas and said, “We are very concerned about North Korea’s recent weapons tests.”
[NSC 고위 관리] “Yes, both sides discussed DPRK. I think we are very concerned — I know we are very concerned about the recent weapons tests. We are very concerned about the growing relationship between Russia and the DPRK and what that could mean for Mr. Kim’s intentions. We raised those concerns directly with China, given their influence over Pyongyang.”
“We are also very concerned about the growing relationship between Russia and North Korea and what that means for Kim Jong-un’s intentions,” he said. “Given China’s influence over North Korea, we have raised these concerns directly with China.” I did it.
Prior to that, Assistant Director Sullivan and Director Wang Yi met in Bangkok, Thailand on the 25th and 26th.
“We hope that these discussions will continue between the representatives of the two countries,” said the official, citing as an example future discussions with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong during his recent visit to Pyongyang. “Our next step is for the US representative to have a phone call with Vice Minister Sun after his visit to North Korea,” he explained.
[NSC 고위 관리] “And we hope that these discussions will continue further between our two ambassadors. For example, I think the Chinese just sent their deputy foreign minister to Pyongyang this week, if I’m not mistaken. So our next step would be a call between our ambassador and the deputy foreign minister after he returns.”
Previously, Vice Minister Sun led the Chinese Foreign Ministry delegation to Pyongyang on the 25th and met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui and Vice Foreign Minister Park Myong-ho.
Asked by a reporter whether China was playing a constructive role in relations with North Korea, the official responded, “I don’t know if we can say that anything recent has been constructive.”
[NSC 고위 관리] “On the DPRK, I’m not sure I would consider anything recently constructive. Russia certainly has a growing role there and growing influence. But certainly, Beijing certainly maintains influence as well. And I think our expectation would be that they have to use that to bring us back to a denuclearization path.”
He continued, “It is clear that Russia’s role and influence is growing,” and noted, “But China is also clearly maintaining its influence.”
“What we hope is that they (China) should use this to get North Korea back on the path to denuclearization,” the official added.
This is Hamjiha from VOA News.
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