|
China bids to ease Koreas tension
Beijing has held talks with Washington, Seoul and Pyongyang on the tense situation following North Korea's deadly bombardment of a South Korean island, the Chinese foreign ministry has said.China's foreign minister Yang Jiechi held phone talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill... on Friday. He also spoke to his South Korean counterpart and met Pyongyang's ambassador to Beijing to discuss the situation. Precise details of what was discussed were not given, but the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said North and South Korea and the United States elaborated their positions on the situation. Washington and Seoul have both appealed to Beijing to use its influence to rein in its wayward ally, but Beijing has so far refused to take sides, merely calling for "restraint" from all parties. Yang urged Seoul and Pyongyang to exercise calm and restraint and solve problems through dialogue, a ministry statement said, according to Xinhua. "The pressing task now is to put the situation under control and prevent a recurrence of similar incidents," he said. The United States and South Korea are planning joint naval exercises in the Yellow Sea on Sunday as a show of force against Beijing's ally North Korea, prompting criticism from China. Earlier on Friday, Beijing warned against military activity in its exclusive economic zone, echoing remarks it made a day earlier opposing the US-South Korean war games. Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, in the first highest-level Chinese response to North Korea's attack, said that China opposes military provocations in any form. "China has all along devoted itself to maintaining the peninsula's peace and stability, and opposed military provocations in any forms," he said during a visit to Russia on Wednesday. The US later on Friday sought to reassure China, insisting that the war games were "not directed at Beijing". "The Chinese government was informed of our intent to conduct this naval exercise in the areas west of the Korean Peninsula," said Pentagon front man Darryn James. "It is important to point out that this exercise is not directed at China. As with previous exercises in this series, these operations are defensive in nature and designed to strengthen deterrence against North Korea," he said. Posted by: Fred 2010-11-27 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=310554 |