International monitors believe that an earthquake near North Korea’s nuclear test site was not related to the illicit weapons program.
U.S. officials have not released a final conclusion, but South Korean monitors declared that the tremors were part of a natural earthquake. However, it attracted international attention as North Korea’s flurry of nuclear provocations has caused the United Nations to increase economic sanctions and produced several rounds of sabre-rattling between President Trump and dictator Kim Jong-un.
“The quake has been analyzed to have occurred naturally,” an official at South Korea’s Meteorological Administration told Yonhap News. “A sound wave, which is usually generated in the event of an artificial earthquake, was not detected.”
Chinese officials initially held that the quake was “suspected” to be part of nuclear test, but ultimately announced the same conclusion as the South Korean analysts. “[The] earthquake not a nuclear explosion, it has characteristics of a natural seismic event,” China’s Earthquake Administration announced, per Voice of America.
That’s a preferable outcome to the testing for both countries. Successive North Korean nuclear bomb and ballistic missile tests have produced renewed pressure on China to adopt and implement international sanctions targeting the North Korean regime.
President Trump expanded the Treasury Department’s ability to sanction foreign banks that work with the North Koreans. U.S. officials maintained is not directed at China, but it is expected to disproportionately affect the Chinese because they are North Korea’s largest trading partner.
“The Chinese side has always opposed the unilateral sanctions outside the framework of the UN Security Council,” Lu Kang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Friday in response to the Trump order. “This position remains clear and consistent.”
China and Russia have provided a series of economic lifelines to the North Korean regime, despite economic sanctions. Diplomats from each country have argued that the United States should freeze joint military exercises with South Korea and withdraw a missile defense system from the region in exchange for a halt to North Korean nuclear bomb and ballistic missile tests..
“The relevant parties should exercise restraint and commit themselves to de-escalating the situation instead of taking mutually provocative actions,” the Chinese diplomat said. “We believe that all the relevant parties should undertake their due responsibilities and work for the shared goals.”
Trump’s team refuses to make concessions in exchange for an end to provocations. “We will not negotiate our way back to the negotiating table with North Korea,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the U.N. Security Council in April. “We will not reward their violations of past resolutions. We will not reward their bad behavior with talks. We will only engage in talks with North Korea when they exhibit a good-faith commitment to abiding by the Security Council resolutions and their past promises to end their nuclear programs.”
