08 December 2010
Steinberg Leads U.S. Delegation to China for North Korea Talks
Washington — Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, the second-highest-ranking U.S. diplomat, is leading a high-level team of officials to Beijing for talks with senior Chinese officials about Northeast Asian security and recent hostile acts by North Korea, the State Department announced December 7.
Steinberg said at a Washington policy research group event that “China has a critical role to play” in reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula after what Washington has described as hostile behavior by the North Korean regime in recent weeks. China and the United States are working together to find solutions to some of the more “vexing problems” that confront the Northeast Asian region, Steinberg said of the upcoming security talks.
“It is critically important that China continue to play a strong role making clear to North Korea that there are consequences for its actions,” Steinberg said at the Center for American Progress December 7. “We welcome the rise of a successful, strong and prosperous China that plays a greater role in global affairs,” he added.
China is the North Korean regime’s closest ally and its largest trading partner.
North Korean army units fired more than 200 artillery shells November 23 on a South Korean fishing community on Yeonpyeong Island, which lies approximately 11.25 kilometers (seven miles) off the coast of North Korea. South Korean army units fired back with about 80 artillery shells. Four South Koreans were killed in the artillery barrage — two marines and two civilians.
The Beijing meetings, set for December 14–17, follow closely a meeting in Washington December 6 by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara. They said in a joint declaration that recent North Korean actions have jeopardized peace in Asia and that Pyongyang’s provocative and belligerent behavior will be met with solidarity from all three countries.
In remarks after the trilateral meeting, Clinton said North Korea’s November 23 attack upon the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong violated the 1953 armistice that halted armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula, and its announcement that it has centrifuges capable of enriching uranium violates several U.N. Security Council resolutions. North Korea recently showed a visiting American nuclear expert a new small industrial-scale uranium processing facility for producing low-enriched uranium for a new reactor.
Robert Carlin of Stanford University, also a North Korea expert, told reporters that he toured the nuclear site and said it was beyond what most experts had imagined.
The Six-Party Talks, involving North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the United States, “cannot substitute for action by North Korea to comply with its obligations,” Clinton said. The talks, which are chaired by China, aim to convince North Korea to forgo a nuclear weapons development program and to eliminate nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula.
Clinton expressed appreciation for China’s initiative to propose an emergency session of discussions, but said that an appropriate basis must exist first for their resumption. “Any effort, of course, must start with North Korea ceasing all provocative and belligerent behavior,” she added.
President Obama telephoned Chinese President Hu Jintao on December 5 to discuss North Korea, the White House said.
“The two presidents discussed our common interest in peace and stability in Northeast Asia and the priority of ensuring the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the White House said in a prepared statement. “They agreed on the importance of the United States and China working together toward these shared goals. The president emphasized the need for North Korea to halt its provocative behavior and to meet its international obligations, including its commitments in the 2005 Six-Party Joint Declaration.”
Obama has condemned the North Korean shelling of Yeonpyeong Island and its pursuit of a uranium enrichment program in defiance of its obligations. He encouraged China to work with the United States and others to send a message to the North Korean regime of Kim Jong Il that its provocations are unacceptable, the White House said.
National Security Advisor Tom Donilon met with Foreign Minister Maehara and Foreign Minister Kim, also on December 6. Donilon expressed the president’s support and personal interest in this trilateral process, and emphasized its timeliness in the wake of the two recent North Korean provocations, the White House said.
Joining Steinberg’s delegation are Jeffrey Bader, National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs; Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs; and Special Envoy for the Six-Party Talks Sung Kim.
“In Beijing, they will meet senior officials to continue consultations with the Chinese on regional security issues, including recent developments on the Korean Peninsula,” the State Department said in an announcement. Campbell will travel to Tokyo on December 16 for consultations, and Kim travels to Seoul on December 16, the announcement said.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
