Gov`t should prompt China to make N. Korea regret nuclear provocation

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sent a clear message to China on Thursday in a telephone conversation with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Saying that China`s approach to North Korea has not succeeded, Kerry urged Beijing to end "business as usual." A day later, South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Byung-se made a phone call to his Chinese counterpart to call for Beijing`s cooperation.

China has considered North Korea`s stability the top priority of its basic policy toward the Korean Peninsula. It has embraced Pyongyang in order to use North Korea as a regional buffer zone against the United States. Now that the North`s fourth nuclear test has sent Pyongyang`s nuclear issue to a point of no return, China should change its approach. North Korea depends on China for more than 90 percent of oil imports. Also, over 90 percent of its daily necessity imports arrive in the North via China`s northeastern region. Beijing can take stern measures against Kim Jong Un by reducing the North`s oil and necessities imports step by step. The United States is mulling banning North Korean vessels` port entries and all bank transactions with the North. Such measures would not be effective without China`s participation. The suspension of North Korean bank accounts at Banco Delta Asia froze former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il`s political funds, inducing him to accept the February 13, 2007 agreement that included the closure of the North`s Yongbyon nuclear facilities.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has been working hard on improving ties with China to the extent that Tokyo and Washington complained about Seoul getting too close to Beijing. The Seoul-Beijing relationship has been upgraded to a "mature strategic cooperative partnership." Park stood on the watch tower on Tiannamen for China`s Victory Day military parade because she was committed to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula and resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. The leaders of South Korea and China are so close that they call each other an "old friend." The current situation is serious enough to force them to use such personal trust as "strategic assets." Seoul should consider using the South Korea-U.S.-Japan regional security cooperation system to put pressure on China. If Beijing refuses to act, Seoul should show its willingness to stand on the U.S.-Japan side. It is also necessary to use as leverage the proposed deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in South Korea and Seoul`s possible start of nuclear armament.

At a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama in September last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent an open warning to the North, saying Beijing was opposed to any action violating the U.N. Security Council`s resolutions. However, Pyongyang`s reply was an "hydrogen bomb" test. The Seoul-Beijing relationship, which the South Korean government bragged as being "the best" since the two neighbors established diplomatic relations, is facing a test. President Park should make a phone call to the Chinese leader in person to urge him to take stern measures against the North, a rogue state.