Response to North Korean nuke test foiled by U.S.-China divide

By Carlo Muñoz - The Washington Times - Monday, September 12, 2016

China and the United States are playing the blame game over North Korea’s most recent nuclear test, with Washington and Beijing trading accusations on whether each country is doing enough to curb Pyongyang’s saber-rattling in the region. The ensuing diplomatic row resulting from the back and forth between the two global powers has only exacerbated the destabilizing effect last week’s test has had in the Asia-Pacific.

China’s Foreign Ministry fired the latest salvo Monday, claiming the Obama administration had not assumed “its due responsibility” to pressure Pyongyang over its latest nuclear missile test.

The pushback comes as the U.S. has stepped up its criticism of the failure of Beijing to rein in North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, despite China’s economic and diplomatic leverage over its smaller neighbor.

“I think the U.S. should go over the process of the development of the nuclear issue and earnestly work on a tangible and effective resolution,” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing, according to state media reports.

She also chastised Defense Secretary Ashton Carter for not leading U.S. efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions in a “balanced way,” adding that “whoever started the trouble [in North Korea] should end it.” The latter a thinly-veiled shot at the Defense Department’s move to deploy the long-range, anti-ballistic missile weapon, dubbed the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, to South Korea.

Beijing has repeatedly denounced the planned THAAD deployment, even blocking a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning a recent North Korean missile test and canceling appearances by South Korean “K-Pop” music stars in recent months to register its displeasure.

U.S. officials have repeatedly stressed that the THAAD-based missile defense system is integral to curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions but would not undermine China’s ballistic missile defense efforts or pose a legitimate threat to Beijing in the region.

But China’s recent round of angry comments came after Mr. Carter chided Beijing’s “important responsibility” to keep its North Korean ally’s nuclear weapons program in check, or risk further destabilizing the already tenuous security situation in the Asia-Pacific.

A Defense Department spokeswoman did not respond to queries seeking comment in response to Ms. Chunying’s statements.

Pyongyang is betting the rhetorical back and forth between Washington and China over the THAAD deployment will drive enough of a wedge between the two nations, blocking a cohesive opposition to its nuclear program.

“North Korea lives in the space created by geostrategic distrust between China and the United States and continues to take for granted China’s commitment to stability over denuclearization,” Scott Snyder, head of the Council on Foreign Relation’s Program on U.S.-Korea Studies, wrote in a recent column.

“The backdrop of Sino-U.S. tensions over the South China Sea and disputes over the U.S.-South Korea alliance decision to deploy the [THAAD] system to South Korea provides North Korea with hope that the United States and China will never unite to take collective action to remove the North Korean regime,” he added.

North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear weapons test last Friday, detonating a 10-kiloton nuclear device at its weapons testing facility at Punggye-ri in the northeastern part of the country, according to reports by the South Korea’s Yonghap News Agency.

Officials in Washington and Seoul were less concerned over the strength of the blast, which reportedly set off an earthquake around the facility, than about North Korea’s claims the massive nuclear warhead could be mounted on an increasingly sophisticated arsenal of midrange ballistic missiles.

Less than a week earlier, officials at U.S. Strategic Command confirmed a trio of missile test shots were launched from North Korea’s test site located in the western city of Hwangju.