SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China put rare public pressure on ally North Korea over the reclusive state’s plan to launch a long-range rocket which is raising tension in the region and could scupper a recent aid deal with the United States.
The announcement of the launch immediately threw into doubt recent hopes that the new young head of the family dynasty ruling North Korea was ready open up more to the international community.
Experts said the planned launch is clearly a ballistic missile test, banned by UN resolutions, and would be in line with North Korea’s long practised diplomacy of using threats to regional security to leverage concessions from the international community, and the United States in particular.
It would also be used to boost the stature of the North’s new young leader Kim Jong-un, who took over the family dynasty after his father’s death late last year.
Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun expressed China’s “worry” when he met North Korean ambassador Ji Jae Ryong on Friday, the Xinhua news agency said.
“We sincerely hope parties concerned stay calm and exercise restraint and avoid escalation of tension that may lead to a more complicated situation,” Xinhua quoted Zhang as saying yesterday.
Though he stopped well short of condemning the planned launch, Beijing only rarely goes public with pressure on the isolated North which relies heavily on its giant neighbour for its economic survival.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday called the announcement highly provocative, telling North Korea to honour its obligations including UN Security Council resolutions banning ballistic missiles.
Washington said a launch carrying a satellite could violate Pyongyang’s agreement last month to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches – and thereby scuttle US plans to resume food aid.
Those talks were in part brokered by China and had triggered expectations of a thaw in relations with North Korea under Kim Jong-un.
Their unravelling in less than a month is a major blow to any serious multilateral talks on denuclearising North Korea and analysts said it was unlikely Pyongyang would back down on the launch planned to coincide with celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the birth of its founder Kim Il-sung, the current leader’s grandfather.
