hankyoreh

captured on April 12.

By Seong Yeon-cheol, Beijing correspondent

China’s state-run newspapers are urging North Korea to refrain from a reportedly imminent missile launch.

The Global Times, the sister publication of the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper, wrote in an Apr. 11 editorial that the one-year-old Kim Jong-un administration had gradually “taken an extreme path” by focusing on nuclear weapons development.

It also said that North Korea “should drop its illusions that it can make the world stay silent over its desire for nuclear arms through its hard-line stance and deceptions.”

“The international community will never permit North Korea to have the legal status of a nuclear country,” the editorial continued.

It also said North Korea “has to face up to the difficulties in returning to the international community if it refuses to give up its nuclear ambitions” and expressed hope that “the North Korean regime can stay rational and pay attention to the interests of the whole region as its bottom line.”

The same newspaper said in editorial last month that North Korea’s actions were “excessive whatever the cause. There is no hope in nuclear weapons.”

The Chinese newspapers also expressed frustration with Washington, which they accused of not making a genuine attempt to resolve the tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

In an interview for the People’s Daily overseas edition, associate dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University Shen Dingli stressed that North Korea “wants to communicate with US President Barack Obama.”

“Isn’t it right for Obama to call North Korea and show his intent to establish peace?” Shen asked. “One phone call won’t solve the problem right away, but it could at least relieve the current tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”

Hu Wenlong, a researcher with the Chinese PLA Academy of Military Sciences, contributed a piece to China’s Xinhua News Agency titled “Who Is Complicating the Situation on the Korean Peninsula?” In it, he criticized the US for “stirring up objections from North Korea on the pretext of enforcing UN sanctions against North Korea, and using this as a means of blocking China’s development and solidifying its own position in Northeast Asia.”

Analysts said the reports from state-run news outlets showed that China is upset and flustered about being seen as a key agent in resolving the nuclear issue when it lacks any truly effective means of influencing Pyongyang.

Meanwhile, former Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui, 90, was reported on Apr. 10 by the Taiwanese news website as saying there was “little chance of a war breaking out on the Korean peninsula,” explaining that North Korea “would not make such a fuss if it really planned on going to war.”
　
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