US asks China, Russia to prevail upon North Korea

The US yesterday asked China and Russia to prevail upon North Korea to refrain from provocative actions.

“We are engaging with the Chinese and the Russians, as well as others, to urge them to prevail upon the North Koreans using their specific influence to ratchet down the behaviour and the rhetoric, because it does nothing good for anyone,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily news conference.

“It does not help for the cause of stability in the region. It certainly does nothing for North Korea’s aspirations to rejoin the community of nations. It does nothing for the North Korean people,” he said.

A day earlier, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, had said that the United States is willing to negotiate with the North Koreans.

“On the matter of negotiations, it has long been our position – and this is, something that Secretary Kerry made clear – that North Korea has available to it a path it may take, could take if it agreed to the basic principle that it needs to be committed to its international obligations, it needs to be committed to the proposition of a denuclearized Korean peninsula, and through the six—party talks, there is a path available,” Carney said.

“But North Korea has, unfortunately, chosen another path, a different path, the path of provocative behaviour and rhetoric that has only served to isolate it further and to bring more harm to its economy through sanctions and the like,” the White House Press Secretary said.

“So that’s what Secretary Kerry was referring to, was that this path is available to North Korea, but that has long has been our position,” he added in response to a question.

The United States, he said, is monitoring closely the developments in the region and has been taking the necessary measures and working with its partners and allies to make clear to North Korea what the result of that kind of decision would be, in terms of condemnation and isolation and further sanction.

COMMENT NOW