Beijing – China sent “a strong message” to North Korea about its nuclear weapons test and urged Pyongyang to return to negotiations about its nuclear arsenal, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after meetings here Friday.
Displaying unusual harmony with China on a key security issue, Rice praised Beijing’s role in the crisis, and she, too, urged North Korea to return to the six-nation negotiations. She expressed pessimism, however, that the isolated regime would take up the offer anytime soon.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing appealed for “cool- headedness” in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, reflecting Beijing’s long- standing fears of instability on the Korean peninsula.
China has long propped up North Korea leader Kim Jong-Il’s regime with oil supplies and other aid, but there are signs that it’s losing patience and reassessing those ties.
Some U.S. officials think that the apparent shift may reflect the fact the China has become a major economic power that values stability more than revolutionary fervor or ideological solidarity with the erratic communist regime in Pyongyang.
Senior Chinese leaders privately have expressed frustration with Kim and questioned his judgment with unusual candor, and a senior Rice aide, speaking aboard her flight here from South Korea, said there had been a “sea change” in China’s attitude toward North Korea. The aide requested anonymity to speak more frankly.
China, which was deeply embarrassed and angered by North Korea’s nuclear test Oct. 9, sent a senior envoy, Tang Jiaxuan, to Pyongyang last week to make its views clear.
Tang, who returned to Beijing on Thursday, said his mission produced results.
“Fortunately, my visit this time has not been in vain,” he said as he met with Rice.
He wasn’t more specific.
There was an unconfirmed report from South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that Kim promised Tang that his country wouldn’t conduct more nuclear tests.
U.S. officials said they couldn’t confirm that report and cast doubt on it.
A major part of Rice’s mission here was to ensure that China, North Korea’s only major ally, enforces strict U.N. sanctions on the country’s imports and exports.
