In the face of mounting threats from North Korea, President
Barack Obama on
Thursday urged closer security ties among its chief allies
in Asia and increased cooperation with strategic rival China to discourage
Pyongyang from further advances in nuclear weapons.
As world leaders gathered for a nuclear security summit,
Obama first met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean
President Park Geun-hye. Together, they warned North Korea would face even
tougher sanctions and more isolation if provokes again with nuclear and missile
tests.
Then Obama met Chinese President Xi Jinping and both called
for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. China also agreed to implement
in full the latest economic restrictions imposed by the UN Security Council
against Pyongyang.
More than 50 governments and international organizations are
attending the two-day summit on preventing nuclear terrorism — the last in a
series of global meetings Obama has championed on the issue. The risk posed by
the Islamic State group tops this year’s agenda but concerns about North Korea
are also commanding focus.
“Of great importance to both of us is North Korea’s pursuit
of nuclear weapons, which threatens the security and stability of the region.
President Xi and I are both committed to the denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula,” Obama said at the start of his meeting with Xi.
“China and the US have a responsibility to work together,”
Xi said in his comments made to reporters through an interpreter. As for their
“disputes and disagreements,” the Chinese leader said the two sides could “seek
active solutions through dialogue and consultation.”
North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January, followed by a
space a launch in February, have heralded more convergence among
often-fractious powers in East Asia — at least on the need to press the
government of Kim Jong Un toward disarming.
Japan and South Korea have persuasive reasons to get along.
They both host U.S. forces and are both in range of North Korean missiles. But
their relations have been plagued by historical differences that date back to
Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea in the first half of the 20th century and
its military’s use of sex slaves during World War II.
But those tensions have eased some. Abe said North Korea
nuclear and missile capability is a “direct and grave threat” to them all.
“Should it choose to undertake yet another provocation, it
is certain to find itself facing even tougher sanctions and isolation,” Park
said of Pyongyang.
Young leader Kim Jong Un has also alienated the North’s
traditional benefactor and main trading partner, China. The U.S. has long urged
Beijing to take a more forceful role in pressing North Korea, and Chinese Vice
Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang said after the Obama-Xi meeting that the two
sides agreed the new U.N. resolution “should be implemented in full and in its
entirety.”
The U.S. and China also released joint statements vowing
robust collaboration to improve nuclear security and to implement a global
climate change deal, and reported progress on the issue of cyber security.
But they were at stark odds in other areas.
According to Zheng, Xi told Obama that China was “firmly
opposed” to the U.S. deploying a new missile defense system in South Korea,
saying it was against China’s national security interests and would the effect
the strategic balance in the region.
The US and Seoul are considering that deployment to counter
the threat from the North. China contends the system would also give the U.S.
radar coverage over Chinese territory. Russia opposes it as well.
Washington has also opposed China’s move to build artificial
islands and military facilities in the disputed South China Sea. Japan and
South Korea are similarly concerned about China’s military build-up and
assertive actions in the region’s disputed waters.
Tensions appear set to intensify with an upcoming ruling
from an international tribunal that could challenge the legal basis of some of
Beijing’s sweeping territorial claims. The U.S. has supported the right of its
ally, the Philippines, to submit the case and says the ruling should be binding
on both parties, although China has boycotted the proceedings and says it will
ignore it.
Xi told Obama that the South China Sea islands — claimed by
several other Asian governments — have been China’s territory since ancient
times and it has the right to defend its territorial sovereignty and maritime
rights, Zhang said.
Obama also met Thursday with French President Francois
Hollande, amid steep concerns about terrorism in Europe following Islamic
State-linked attacks in Paris and Brussels. The nuclear security summit
continues on Friday with a special session focused on preventing IS and other
extremists from obtaining nuclear materials and attacking urban areas.
On Thursday, the U.S. said a strengthened nuclear security
agreement among nations was finally set to take force following ratification by
a critical mass of countries. The stricter rules include new criminal penalties
for smuggling nuclear material and expanded requirements for securing materials
and nuclear facilities worldwide, and are intended to reduce the likelihood of
terrorists getting their hands on ingredients for a bomb.
The United States says it’s making progress in reducing its
stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. The White House says it’s declassifying
and publicly releasing a national inventory of highly enriched uranium for the
first time since 1996. As of late 2013, the U.S. had 586 metric tons of highly
enriched uranium. That’s a drop from the 741 metric tons the U.S. had in 1996.
Fissile materials like highly enriched uranium and separated
plutonium can be used to make nuclear bombs.
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