China's Washington envoy says US should stop threats over North Korea

China’s ambassador to Washington on Friday called on the United States to refrain from making threats over North Korea, which a day earlier launched another missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.

Ambassador Cui Tiankai told reporters at an embassy event: “Honestly, I think the United States should be doing ... much more than now, so that there’s real effective international cooperation on this issue.”

“They should refrain from issuing more threats. They should do more to find effective ways to resume dialogue and negotiation,” he said. 

President Donald Trump and others in the United States and beyond have urged China to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on its Communist ally to help resolve the standoff over North Korea’s weapons programmes.

China fought alongside North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, in which Chinese leader Mao Zedong lost his eldest son, and Beijing has long been Pyongyang’s chief ally and primary trade partner.

But the Chinese government has pushed back against the notion that it has any control over Pyongyang, and says it is the United States that should be doing more.

Trump tweeted earlier this month that the United States was considering halting trade with countries doing business with North Korea.

Cui on Friday cautioned against putting China-US trade on the table. 

“Efforts to undermine Sino-U.S. trade, or even slapping sanctions on China, I think would be off-target,” the Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoted Cui as saying on Friday at a Chinese National Day reception.

“If someone were to pressure China or impose sanctions on China over the DPRK, it would not be supported by many US citizens,” Cui said, referring to North Korea by the acronym for its official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.