Beijing, March 08 (QNA) – North Korea should suspend its nuclear activities in exchange for the US South Korea halting their annual joint military drills, China proposed on Wednesday, as tensions between the two sides escalate.
The actions would bring the two parties back to the negotiating table, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters on the sidelines of the annual plenary session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing.
His comments came after North Korea launched four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Monday and the US in response began the deployment of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system to South Korea.
Wang said Pyongyang on one side and Seoul and Washington on the other were “like two accelerating trains coming toward each other with neither side willing to give way. “The question is are the sides really ready for a head-on collision?” he continued. China’s role was to switch the tracks and help apply the brakes in order to avoid the collision, he said.
The issue was mainly between the US and North Korea, though China was also “indispensable to the resolution of the nuclear issue,” Wang said. “China has a strong commitment to denuclearizing the peninsula,” he added. “Nuclear weapons will not bring security. The use of force will not bring solutions. Talks deserve another chance, and peace is still within our grasp”. (QNA)
