By Ankit Panda
The United States and China may come together to increase pressure on Pyongyang to back off its nuclear program.
The United States and China are considering imposing additional sanctions on North Korea, which continues to refuse any concessions on its nuclear program. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed that talks are underway with Beijing when he spoke in Seoul, South Korea on Monday. Kerry visited China over the weekend, meeting with senior Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. (The Diplomat‘s Shannon Tiezzi covered that visit in greater detail here.)
Kerry’s comments in Seoul suggested that the United States had grown weary of waiting for North Korea to demonstrate any bona fide attempt at freezing development on its nuclear program. He emphasized the United States’ long-standing offer to return to negotiations in a multilateral setting—perhaps a revival of the long-stalled Six-Party Talks—after Pyongyang showed that it was willing to denuclearize. ”To date, to this moment, particularly with recent provocations, it is clear the DPRK is not even close to meeting that standard,” Kerry noted, standing beside South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se at a press conference. ”Instead it continues to pursue nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.”
Interestingly, Kerry emphasized that the United States’ ongoing participation in international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program could serve as a model for North Korea. In the press conference, Kerry noted that he and Wang had “agreed that a mix of negotiations and pressure are needed to address this challenge, and North Korea needs to live up to its international obligations and commitments.” He added that “it is obvious that North Korea needs to recognize that it will not succeed in developing its economy or breaking out of diplomatic isolation if it continues to reject denuclearization.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat