Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Xi says diplomacy key in N. Korea fix
To Trump, he stresses peaceful tack
BEIJING — China is willing to work with the U.S. on ending North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program but wants a peaceful solution to the escalating conflict, Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Donald Trump in a phone call Wednesday.
Xi’s comments came after Trump tweeted that China should do more on a matter that Washington sees as an increasingly urgent threat, or else the U.S. would go it alone.
China’s calls for calm come as tensions have risen with the dispatching of a U.S. aircraft carrier to the area and the deployment of thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops, tanks and other weaponry for their biggest-ever joint military exercises.
During their phone call, Xi told Trump that China is willing to continue working with the U.S. on denuclearization, according to a brief
description of the call released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
“China insists on realizing the denuclearization of the peninsula, insists on maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula, and advocates resolving the problem through peaceful means,” Xi was quoted as saying.
The two leaders spoke Tuesday night Washington time after Trump said an “armada” of vessels including the USS Carl Vinson carrier was steaming to waters off the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.
Trump tweeted Wednesday: “Had a very good call last night with the President of China concerning the menace of North Korea.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a regular briefing Wednesday in Beijing that it was a “good thing” that the two leaders were in touch again days after meeting in Florida.
Regarding the U.S. Navy strike force’s arrival in the western Pacific, Lu said, “We hope all parties will refrain from irresponsible actions that would be very dangerous at the moment.”
North Korean state media outlets have warned of a nuclear attack on the United States in retaliation for any signs of aggression, a threat that has been made numerous times before.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump suggested the U.S. could “solve” the North Korea problem unilaterally.
“North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A.,” Trump tweeted.
In another tweet, he sought to persuade Xi to put pressure on North Korea in exchange for a good trade deal with the U.S. He wrote: “I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!”
Trump and other U.S. officials repeatedly have called on China to leverage its status as North Korea’s biggest economic partner and source of food and fuel aid to force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear-weapons program.
China says it is in full compliance with sanctions enacted under U.N. Security Council resolutions. In February, China suspended imports of coal from North Korea — a key source of foreign currency for Kim Jong Un’s hard-line communist regime.
Any attack on Kim’s regime — even a limited strike on weapons facilities — risks catastrophic blowback on some of Asia’s biggest economies. It could threaten to trigger a U.S. war with China and leave the capitals of allies South Korea and Japan at risk of destruction, the same calculation that has helped maintain an uneasy peace in North Asia since the Korean War in the 1950s.
“This has the potential to turn into a conflagration that Asia hasn’t seen since the Vietnam War,” said Brian Bridges, a Malaysia-based adjunct professor of Asian
politics at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. “If anything, his unpredictability makes the situation more risky because the North Koreans aren’t 100 percent sure he won’t attack.”
Japan has asked the United States to consult with it before any military action U.S. forces might take against North Korea, and the U.S. government has indicated its intention to accept the request, a source in the Japanese government said Wednesday.
Yoshihide Suga, the top spokesman for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government, declined to comment Wednesday on whether the country would support a U.S. strike on North Korea.
“Given that the security environment is worsening, it is extremely important to make sure of the U.S. deterrent,” Suga told reporters in Tokyo in response to questions about the safety of Japanese citizens. “We approve of the U.S. attitude of keeping all options on the table.”
The Japanese government repeatedly has asked the U.S. government to coordinate their North Korea policies.
As part of these efforts, Japan has asked the United States to offer consultation if Washington takes a step toward military action.
On the other hand, U.S. bases in Japan are believed to be points from which U.S. forces would be deployed and logistic support provided.
The U.S. government also believes Japan’s cooperation would be essential for an attack.
A senior Japanese government official said: “If [the United States] undertakes military action, we have asked them to offer prior consultation. The U.S. side understands this.”
Japan might support a limited strike that only targeted North Korea’s weapon facilities, according to a person with knowledge of the Abe administration’s thinking. In that scenario, the biggest risk Japan sees would be a North Korean attack on U.S. bases in the country, said the person, who asked not to be named while discussing matters of national security.
“This is psychological warfare,” said Narushige Michishita, a former Japanese defense official and professor of strategic studies at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. “When you want to scare
your enemy, you have to make your own people believe that this is real. It is only natural that the U.S. is playing this game. While playing this game, the U.S. cannot tell us clearly that this is just bluffing.”
The U.S. and other foreign governments have long overestimated China’s ability to affect North Korea’s behavior, said Ruan Zongze, a U.S. relations expert at the China Institute of International Studies, a think tank run by the Foreign Ministry.
“There’s a view that China possesses the key to solving the peninsula problem, or that China has the faucet and that all China has to do is shut it off and the peninsula issue is solved,” Ruan said.
“In fact, I think the outside exaggerates the sort of role China can play. China isn’t really as influential as all that,” he said.
China’s insistence on a peaceful approach is rooted in its belief that any attempt to denuclearize the North by force would bring cataclysmic results upon all sides, including China, Ruan said.
“When it comes to the issue of the Korean Peninsula, violence is not an option,” he said.
China says it will not countenance measures that could bring about a collapse of the regime that could release a flood of refugees across its border, destabilize northeast Asia and result in a U.S.-friendly government taking power in Pyongyang.
South Korea doesn’t support a preemptive strike and is closely coordinating with the Trump administration, according to an Asian government official familiar with North Korean issues who asked not to be identified. Trump must take into consideration the countries affected for any military decision, the official said.