Speaking at a news conference in Seoul, the US President urged China to use its influence to stop North Korea's "bad behaviour" in a nuclear standoff with the West and hinted at tougher sanctions if the reclusive state goes ahead with a rocket launch next month.
Speaking at a news conference with South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak ahead of a nuclear summit, the US President said that China could play a key role in preventing North Korea gaining a nuclear weapon.
"I believe that China is very sincere that it does not want to see North Korea with a nuclear weapon. But it is going to have to act on that interest in a sustained way."
Mr Obama said that Beijing's actions of "rewarding bad behaviour (and) turning a blind eye to deliberate provocations" were obviously not working, adding he would raise the matter at a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday.
The President's comments were his strongest push yet to get China to use its influence to rein in its ally North Korea and dovetails with recent calls for Beijing to meet its responsibilities as a rising world power.
Seoul and Washington say the launch of a rocket proposed next month by North Korea is a disguised test of a ballistic missile. North Korea says it merely wants to put a satellite into orbit.
North Korea already has nukes. It's Iran that doesn't.
ReplyDeleteummmm doesn't North Korea already have "a nuclear weapon" or two?
ReplyDeleteWTF? From what I've been reading, this is a SATELLITE launch? What's the big deal?
ReplyDelete