Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cui Tiankai has revealed that China is “reserving judgment” on the topic of North Korea’s uranium enrichment program, leading to speculation that Beijing is trying to head off any attempt to bring the issue to the UN Security Council.
It also points to the idea that China does not wish to let it become a headline at the U.S.-China Summit, which will be held in Washington D.C. on January 19th.
In a Q&A following his keynote speech on the China-U.S. relationship at Lanting Forum in Beijing on the afternoon of January 14th, Cui pointed out, “Based on my understanding, China has not seen (the related facility) and the observations were made by American experts,” before adding, “Even they have not looked over the facility adequately, so the matter is not altogether clear yet.”
Since Cui gave his statement in answer to a question about how China would react if the United States proposed submitting the issue to the UN Security Council and/or suggested discussing possible North Korea sanctions at the U.S.-China Summit, he appears to have been exhibiting the Chinese leadership’s opposition to any such moves.
“They believe that ‘reserving judgment’ will help in the early hosting of the Six-Party Talks,” Choi Choon Heum, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told The Daily NK. “It indirectly emphasizes that the UEP program can be inspected by the IAEA once the Six-Party Talks are held.”
In addition, Choi commented, “China is trying to build an atmosphere in which no more conditions are added to the hosting of the Six-Party Talks, rather than seeing one more be added.”
“If the North Korean UEP issue is submitted to the UN Security Council, there will be no avoiding pressure for North Korea,” a diplomatic source pointed out. “For China, which is going all out for the resumption of the Six-Party Talks, this could only make the situation more complicated; therefore they played the ‘reserve judgment’ card.”
Cui stated as much when he said, “Based on prior experience of nuclear problems on the Korean Peninsula, the Six-Party Talks are a more suitable stage on which to handle this matter than that of the UN Security Council.”
Cui’s speech certainly appears to suggest that China wants to try and avoid discussion of the UEP issue, for the purpose of which “we haven’t seen it so we don’t know” is a compelling defense. Therefore, the prospects for productive discussion of North Korean nuclear programs at the summit in Washington have receded.
However, Yoo Ho Yeol, a professor at Korea University offered a positive spin, saying, “Since the agenda for the U.S.-China Summit was confirmed in advance, Vice Foreign Minister Cui’s views will not have an influence on the summit.”
