Tonguçnaz Seleme Baştürk
20 January 2016•Update: 20 January 2016
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
South Korea and the United States stepped up talks Wednesday with a view to hitting North Korea with toughened sanctions over its claimed hydrogen bomb test earlier this month.
The allies are working to persuade China and Russia to approve a strict punishment of the North at the United Nations Security Council, where Beijing and Moscow enjoy the power of veto.
Even after three previous North Korean nuclear tests – and a series of related UN resolutions and sanctions – China has remained Pyongyang’s most important economic partner.
North Korea’s relationship with Beijing was cemented during the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.
But in recent years, China has openly attempted to dissuade Pyongyang from furthering its rogue nuclear weapon ambitions, and Seoul and Washington have been hoping to capitalize on that.
“We believe that China has a special role to play, given the special relationship that it has with North Korea,” visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken told reporters in Seoul after meeting with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se.
Even though Beijing has refused to accept sole responsibility for Pyongyang’s provocative behavior, Blinken urged China to “show leadership on this issue.”
The U.S. diplomat will soon have the chance to deliver that message directly, as he was set to depart for China later in the day.
Meanwhile, Seoul’s foreign ministry reported that talks between nuclear envoy Hwang Joon-kook and his Russian counterpart a day earlier in Moscow had touched on a joint response to the North’s nuclear test.
While they apparently agreed that North Korea had violated its UN commitments, Russia’s stance was reportedly closer to China’s in suggesting that dialogue would be a more appropriate path forward than stricter sanctions.
