By alonso calatrava
Jul 23, 2023, 11:20 AM EDT
The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, made it official that he asked China to use its influence over North Korea so that Kim Jong-un, leader of the Asian nation, sits down to negotiate on his nuclear program with the powers of the West.
This comes amid renewed tensions with Pyongyang over the arrival of a nuclear-armed US submarine, new North Korean missile tests in the Sea of Japan and the capture of a US soldier who crossed from South Korea on the run from authorities.
“We have made it clear that we are prepared to have no precondition negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear program, but their response has been one missile after another,” Blinken confirmed.
The representative of US diplomacy asked in his last meetings with his Chinese counterparts in Beijing to help bring North Korea to the table to advance the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. If a deal cannot be reached, the United States will have to further strengthen the defensive alliance with South Korea and Japan, something that “China probably won’t like.”
“We have made it clear that we are prepared to have no precondition negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear program, but their response has been one missile after another,” Blinken said.
Tensions on the peninsula are at maximum levels after 2022 in which North Korea carried out a record number of ballistic missile tests, which are still ongoing, and in which Seoul and Washington carried out their great military maneuvers, while China and Russia hold new exercises in the Sea of Japan.
“We are very concerned, of course, for his well-being. We would like to know your whereabouts. We have communicated with North Korea, but I don’t have anything else at the moment,” he stated.
On the other hand, the Pentagon and the State Department have tried to contact the North Korean authorities to find out the whereabouts and state of health of the 23-year-old private second class Travis T. King, who is in the custody of the North Korean authorities.
US media reported Tuesday that Private King was in the process of being returned to the United States as a disciplinary measure tied to assault charges. Anonymous sources with knowledge of King’s legal situation explained to the Yonhap news agency that he was fined about $3,900 for damaging the door of a police car that stopped him last February.
With information from EFE
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