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China has appealed for calm following North Korea’s announcement that it planned to test a nuclear bomb.
The US has already indicated it would raise the issue with the UN Security Council, but Beijing says the issue should be handled by ongoing six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
I actually think this is a hopeful sign, as it sounds like China may finally put some real pressure on Pyongyang in the six-party talks. They certainly don’t want any Security Council action that could be interpreted by the US as authorizing military action in China’s backyard.“If the six-party talks cannot do anything about it, I don’t think the Council is in a position to do it,” China’s envoy to the UN, Wang Guangya, told reporters.
While critics may be right that Washington could have done more to lure North Korea back to the table, I think the US policy of refusing bilateral talks has been the right one - without a united front, Pyongyang would just play the US, China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia off one another, like bickering parents in a hippie commune group marriage.