The way to resolve US’ concerns over North Korea is to abandon the Cold War mentality and stop provocations and military threats against Pyongyang, Chinese experts said on Thursday, after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia and North Korea of providing military technology and support to each other and asked China to pull North Korea back from its “dangerous behavior” during Blinken’s recent visit to Seoul.
Blinken on Thursday condemned what he said was the “growing and dangerous” military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, when he met with South Korea’s foreign minister Park Jin, Yonhap News Agency reported.
He expressed concerns about support for North Korea’s “ballistic missile programs, nuclear technology, and its space launch capacity.” Blinken said the US and South Korea will continue their efforts to “identify, expose, and counter” Russian-North Korean military transactions.
Meanwhile, Blinken also mentioned China’s influence on North Korea, stating that Beijing should leverage its influence and play a constructive role in persuading Pyongyang to cease its “irresponsible and dangerous actions.”
Lü Chao, a research fellow at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday that Blinken’s remarks about possible military cooperation between North Korea and Russia are all based on unverified claims.
The evidence provided by the US and based on its intelligence agencies and satellite photos of container ships does not provide strong support for Blinken’s accusations, Lü noted.
Yang Xiyu, a senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Thursday that any sovereign state has the right to conduct military cooperation with other countries, whether bilaterally or multilaterally, as it chooses according to its own national interests.
China is able to play a positive role on the Korean Peninsula issue, but it is disappointing to see that the US views the Korean Peninsula issue with a Cold War mentality, in which confrontation is emphasized.
“It simply views South Korea, Japan and the US as a bloc that is the same as China’s relations with Russia and North Korea, but I have to say the US has a wrong perception toward China, which leads it to have wrong expectations of China,” Yang said.
Lü noted that the solution to Blinken’s “concerns” about the possible North Korea-Russia arms trade is simple: The US, Japan, and South Korea must first remove or reduce their military threats against North Korea and resolve the regional disputes through peaceful negotiations.
During the meeting between Blinken and Park, they also discussed collaborating to execute extended deterrence approaches aimed at addressing North Korean threats and enhancing the strategic partnership with Japan, as well as additional measures that can be taken with partners to exert pressure on Russia.
Increasingly serious military threats against North Korea will only further intensify tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Lü noted. He noted that Blinken’s words and actions made during his tour to South Korea do not contribute to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, but serve to fulfill his own objective – tightly binding South Korea, a pawn for the US Indo-Pacific Strategy, to the US geopolitical agenda.
(Global Times)
