China must not brush off the North’s threats

The leaders of Korea, Japan and China have reached a consensus that the peace, stability and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia constitute their common interests and responsibility. In the trilateral summit on Monday, President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced a joint statement on expanding their human exchanges and systemizing the operation of a tripartite consultative body.

But their discussions on dealing with North Korean nuclear threats fell short of our expectations. Before the summit, there were rumors in South Korea and Japan that a draft of the joint statement included “the common goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.” But the phrase was deleted by China at the last minute.

In the press conference following the summit, President Yoon pointed to the need to “denuclearize North Korea for the peace of the peninsula,” but the Chinese premier toned it down to “political resolution of the peninsula issue,” demanding “restraint from involved parties.” That translates into a call for South Korea and Japan to keep their reactions at bay, not a warning against North Korea.

Ten hours before the summit, Pyongyang announced a plan to launch a military reconnaissance satellite to create friction in tripartite cooperation. The Chinese premier’s nonchalant reaction to such an alarming move from North Korea is not compatible with China’s description of itself as “a responsible member of the international community.” China upholds the principle that South Korea and the United States must stop their annual joint drills in return for the North’s scrapping of its nuclear and missile activities. But China’s reaction on Monday is hard to comprehend: It endorsed a UN Security Council resolution on banning the North from using ballistic missile technology for launch vehicles or satellites.

North Korea has been bent on weakening UN sanctions by building close ties with Russia. The United Nations can no longer watch the North’s suspicious activities after Russia opposed the extension of the term of a UN expert panel to monitor the North’s suspicious movements. If China joins the move, it can provoke a miscalculation by Pyongyang. We hope China takes a sincere approach to the North’s denuclearization.

South Korea has been serving as one of the nonpermanent members of the UN Security Council since January. The country will assume the presidency of the council from next month. It offers an opportunity for the country to bolster its effort to achieve peace, stability and co-prosperity of Northeast Asia. As president of the council, the South must put the brakes on the North’s nuclear threat by creating a body that can effectively replace the expert panel.