Xi tells Kim China willing to work with N.Korea for ‘world peace’: KCNA

News Desk

3 years ago

Xi tells Kim China willing to work with N.Korea for ‘world peace’: KCNA, According to North Korean state media, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Kim Jong Un that Beijing was ready to cooperate with Pyongyang for global peace. Days prior to Xi’s message, North Korea conducted one of its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile tests, in which it declared it would respond to perceived US nuclear threats with its own nuclear weapons.

Xi tells Kim China willing to work with N.Korea for ‘world peace’: KCNA

North Korea has conducted a record-breaking blitz of missile launches in recent weeks and fears have grown that it is building up to a seventh nuclear test, its first since 2017. In his message to Kim, Xi said Beijing was ready to work with the North for “peace, stability, development and prosperity of the region and the world,” Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Xi said he was willing to collaborate with Pyongyang as “changes in the world, times, and history are taking place in unprecedented ways,” KCNA said, quoting from the message it said was received in response to congratulations from Kim after the Chinese Communist Party Congress last month handed Xi a third term.

Days before North Korea’s ICBM launch, Xi met on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Bali with US President Joe Biden, who voiced confidence that Beijing does not want to see a further escalation by Pyongyang. Washington has said it wants China, Pyongyang’s most important ally and economic benefactor, to use its influence to help rein in North Korea.

The November 18 missile launch appeared to be Pyongyang’s newest ICBM with the potential range to hit the US mainland. The UN Security Council convened an open meeting over the launch, with the United States, Britain, France and India among 14 nations to “strongly condemn” Pyongyang’s actions. But a Western diplomat told AFP that China and Russia had chosen not to put their names to Monday’s statement.

The US charged Beijing and Moscow with shielding Pyongyang from more sanctions earlier this month. A US-led effort to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea in response to earlier launches was blocked in May by China and Russia. Due to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Pyongyang is already subject to a number of international sanctions, and China accounts for more than 90% of the impoverished nation’s bilateral trade.

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