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Japan calls on China to up N. Korea cooperation
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Jan 28, 2018


Mattis wants to keep pressure on N. Korea
Honolulu (AFP) Jan 27, 2018 - The United States and South Korea are going to keep tightening the screws on Pyongyang so that the hermit state gives up its nuclear program, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Friday.

"As two peace-loving nations, the Republic of Korea and America welcome the Olympic Games talks between the ROK and DPRK while at the same time remaining steadfast with the international economic pressure campaign to denuclearize the Korean peninsula," Mattis said in Honolulu.

The defense secretary was speaking at the start of a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Song Young-Moo at US Pacific Command, or PACOM, headquarters.

"Diplomacy should repose reason on Kim's reckless rhetoric and dangerous provocations," Mattis said, warning that the Winter Olympics talks and the respite in inter-Korean ties that accompany them do not solve overarching problems.

"The Kim regime is a threat to the entire world... Our response to this threat remains diplomacy-led, backed up with military options available to ensure that our diplomats are understood to be speaking from a position of strength."

Pyongyang has agreed to send athletes and support delegations to the South for the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next month and form a unified women's ice hockey team with the South.

The move followed months of entreaties from Seoul to take part in a "peace Olympics," prompting a rare and rapid improvement in the atmosphere on the peninsula.

But the North is also preparing a massive military parade in Pyongyang on February 8, a day before the Winter Olympics' opening ceremony.

The North has long said it is open to talks without preconditions, but the US says it must first take concrete steps towards denuclearization, although the administration of President Donald Trump has at times sent mixed and conflicting messages on the issue.

Japan's foreign minister called on China to increase cooperation on curbing North Korea's nuclear weapons programme Sunday during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing.

The meeting between Japan's Taro Kono and China's Wang Yi comes as the rival nations aim to improve relations held back by longstanding and seemingly intractable disputes over territory and Japan's war-time legacy.

While ties between Asia's two largest economies have shown signs of warming, China's president Xi Jinping and Japan's PM Shinzo Abe have yet to meet on their own soil.

In remarks at Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guest House, Kono praised the progress between the countries towards improving ties, while calling on Beijing to do more to curb Pyongyang's weapons programme.

"I believe it is important not only to discuss issues related to our two countries, but for Japan and China to stand side by side to deal with global issues," he said.

"In particular, the North Korea issue is now an urgent issue for the whole of international society."

Tokyo has been wooing China with official visits and business delegations, but an exchange of state visits has remained a hard sell.

Japan is hoping that will change this year as the two countries prepare to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the signing of a Japan-China friendship treaty.

Relations between the two countries are at a "crucial stage," Chinese foreign minister Wang told Kono.

"There is positive progress, but many disturbances and obstacles remain," he said, adding he hoped that the two sides could work together to push ties "toward the track of normal and sound development at an early date."

A major source of tensions is a long-standing dispute over islands in the East China Sea, known as "Senkaku" in Japanese and "Diaoyu" by the Chinese side.

Tokyo's decision to "nationalise" some of the islets in 2012 led to a major falling out between the two countries, and the fragile relationship has been slow to recover.

Chinese coastguard vessels routinely travel around the disputed islands, a practice that has elicited regular objections from Japan, which controls the region.

Although the issue was not mentioned publicly, it was likely a subject of conversation behind closed doors, as the disagreement heated up earlier this month when Tokyo revealed that Beijing had sent a nuclear-powered submarine to the area for the first time.

Japan is also pushing to host a trilateral summit with leaders from China and South Korea to discuss a broad range of regional issues, including North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

The meeting, which was scheduled for last December, was postponed following the impeachment of former South Korean president Park Geun-Hye.

NUKEWARS
US sanctions N. Korean, Chinese firms aiding Pyongyang
Washington (AFP) Jan 24, 2018
The United States slapped new sanctions on North Korean and Chinese firms and individuals that it said support the Pyongyang regime of Kim Jong-Un and his nuclear weapons program. The move comes as the US seeks to choke the flow of goods and materials crucial to North Korea's economy like oil, electronics and metals, and pressure Kim to halt the development of nuclear weapons that threaten t ... read more

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