In a meeting with outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese leader Xi Jinping expressed “firm commitment to achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Reuters reported. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit held in Lima, Peru.
“President Xi and I are united on our strong opposition to North Korea’s provocations, and we will intensify our efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula,” Obama said.
North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test on Sept. 9, prompting the U.S. and China to negotiate a draft treaty for a UN Security Council resolution that would impose fresh sanctions. While China has voiced its support for the draft, a senior Security Council diplomat told Reuters that Russia still has some reservations. Each of the Council’s five members has the right to veto any resolution.
China is the only ally of North Korea, a totalitarian socialist state that has alarmed its neighbors by testing nuclear bombs and long-range missiles. But Beijing has increasingly given North Korea the cold shoulder.
In September, the Chinese authorities detained a businesswoman, Ma Xiaohong, whose shipping company in Northeast China was accused of exporting materials to North Korea that were important for nuclear warhead production and banned by U.N. sanction. Ma was part of a greater purge of Communist Party-controlled electors that took place the same month.
(NTD Television)
Featured image: Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) accompanies U.S. President Barack Obama to view an honor guard during a welcoming ceremony on November 12, 2014 in Beijing, China. Credit: Feng Li/Getty Images
