The United States is in talks with China about sanctioning North Korea over the latter’s failure to limit its nuclear program, according to Secretary of State John Kerry.
“To date, to this moment, particularly with recent provocations, it is clear the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] is not even close to meeting that standard,” Kerry said Monday during a press conference from South Korea with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se.
“Instead it continues to pursue nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles,” Kerry added.
North Korea is already under heavy sanctions from the United Nations, European Union and U.S. for its missile and nuclear programs; more could be on the way.
“I think never has the international community been as united as we are now that, number one, North Korea needs to denuclearize,” Kerry said, using a pending nuclear deal between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers could serve as a blueprint for a nuclear deal with North Korea.
“With respect to the methodology for boosting sanctions and other things, we [the United States and China] are discussing all of that now. China has obviously an extraordinary leverage,” Kerry, who was in Beijing over the weekend, continued. “We will have security and economic dialogue with the Chinese in Washington in June and that will be the moment where we will table some of these specific steps.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei declined to comment on Kerry’s remarks at a daily news briefing. Instead, he reiterated China’s calls for denuclearization of the entire Korean peninsula.
(h/t Reuters)
