A former senior intelligence official told Congress on Tuesday that China may hold the keys to pressuring North Korea into abandoning its nuclear program.
“China is an ally of a North Korea that needs China’s economic assistance,” said Joseph R. DeTrani, who served as the U.S. intelligence communities top official on North Korea from 2010 through last year.
While multi-party diplomatic talks between Western leaders and North Korea have foundered in recent years, Mr. DeTrani told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that China may be able to “help convince the leadership in Pyongyang that the current escalatory path North Korea is pursuing will be disastrous.”
His remarks came even as the government of 28-year-old Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un threatened to end its 60-year-old cease fire with South Korea.
The threat followed news from the U.N. that the U.S. has struck a tentative deal with China to tighten international sanctions on North Korea in response to the rogue regime carrying out a nuclear test last month — its third controlled nuclear explosion.
North Korea’s military also said it will also cut off direct phone links to South Korea.
© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
Guy Taylor rejoined The Washington Times in 2011 as the State Department correspondent.
As a freelance journalist, Taylor’s work was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Fund For Investigative Journalism, and his stories appeared in a variety publications, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to Salon, Reason, Prospect Magazine of London, the Daily Star of Beirut, the ...
By Jay Sekulow
The left's outrage over the IRS turns to a plea to 'move on'
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Politics and pop culture from the perspective of an independent hip-hop conservative
Al Maurer provides a common sense, conservatarian, Constitutional conservative perspective from the battleground state of Colorado
World's Ugliest Dog Contest
26 Photos
Spelling Bee finale
45 Photos
Marines train Afghan soldiers
4 Photos
Rolling Thunder 2013
24 Photos
Benghazi: The anatomy of a scandal
13 Photos
