Russia and China agreed Tuesday that North Korea should halt missile tests and the United States should not deploy a missile shield or conduct large-scale military exercises with South Korea.
The joint agreement came after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow and follows what the North Korean regime claims was a successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. The agreement was first reported by Reuters.
“We’ve agreed to promote our joint initiative, based on Russian step-by-step Korean settlement plan and Chinese ideas to simultaneously freeze North Korean nuclear and missile activities, and U.S. and South Korean joint military drills,” Putin said at a press conference.
The agreement is also a clear pushback against President Trump by America’s strategic rivals — Russia, the one-time superpower, and China, a burgeoning global force.
Trump has talked of the possibility of escalating pressure on the rogue North Korean regime, and the Pentagon is considering a show of force in the wake of Pyongyang’s most recent missile test. The Beijing-Moscow agreement is a challenge to the U.S. for which the two rival powers have separate rationales.
Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., chairwoman of an Armed Services nuclear forces subcommittee, said Tuesday that both Russia and China have propped up the North and the U.S. should have “no illusions” that they can solve the threat of its missile program.
“The latest test-launch demonstrates a sobering reality: The threat of North Korea is quickly advancing,” Fischer said. “As the threat increases, we must bring greater pressure to bear on North Korea, and its international patrons, China and Russia, but we should have no illusions that they will solve this problem for us.”
The United States says the test Monday initially appeared to have involved an intermediate range missile that fell into the Sea of Japan.
Trump has been pressing China, which maintains economic ties to North Korea, to pressure the rogue regime to end missile tests that have dramatically ramped up during his presidency.
“Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!” Trump tweeted late Monday.
Part of the U.S. response was deploying a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile shield to South Korea, which could shoot down incoming missiles from the North but created political controversy with the U.S. ally.
The THAAD system provides cover not only for the bustling metropolis of Seoul but also for about 25,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in South Korea.
Joint exercises between the U.S. and South Korea have long been used as a show of force against North Korea but continually rile Kim Jong Un’s regime.
