McCain: Get tough on NKorea

2009-04-09 14:31

Beijing - US Senator John McCain said on Thursday that he urged Chinese officials in talks here to back strong UN action on North Korea's rocket launch, but China warned against provoking its unpredictable neighbour.

"We discussed North Korea, including the need for the international community to take a strong stand, including sanctions," to punish Pyongyang, McCain told reporters.

"I hope that China will join us in this effort," he added, noting China's influence over North Korea.

The North insists Sunday's rocket launch placed a satellite into orbit, but the United States and its allies say it never made it into space and that the real purpose was to test a long-range ballistic missile.

The United States has called for a tough UN response on North Korea, saying it violated a 2006 Security Council resolution banning missile activity by the Stalinist regime.

But a Chinese spokesperson reiterated Beijing's call for restraint, saying that punishing North Korea would endanger a six-nation effort to rid Kim Jong-Il's regime of its nuclear capability.

"Our basic point in handling this issue is to safeguard peace and stability on the Korean peninsula... pressure will not be conducive to the goal of denuclearising the Korean peninsula," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

"We hope all parties can make dramatic efforts to press ahead with the denuclearisation process."

Under a six-nation accord reached in 2007 by the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and China, Pyongyang agreed to abandon its nuclear programmes in return for aid and diplomatic incentives.

But the effort has been stalled since late last year amid North Korean resistance to verification measures.

McCain spoke a day after he and fellow senators Lindsey Graham and Amy Klobuchar, as part of an Asia tour, met with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Defence Minister Liang Guanglie.

McCain, the Republican Party's senior member on the Senate Armed Services Committee who lost last year's presidential election to Barack Obama, said the six-nation talks "have not been very successful".

He also voiced impatience with China's calls for North Korea to "exercise restraint".

"We have heard that for years," he said.

McCain repeated a call made just before his trip for China to exert more pressure on North Korea to observe norms of international behaviour.

However, the foreign ministry's Jiang defended the six-nation effort that China chairs.

"The six-party talks over past years have made some progress and the facts have proved that the talks have become an important platform for parties to enhance understanding," she said.

- AFP