China should remain neutral if North Korea launches an attack that threatens the United States, a Chinese state-run newspaper said on Friday, sounding a warning for Pyongyang over its plans to fire missiles near the US Pacific territory of Guam.
The comments from the influential Global Times came after US President Donald Trump stepped up his rhetoric against North Korea again on Thursday, saying his earlier threat to unleash “fire and fury” on Pyongyang if it launched an attack may not have been tough enough.
China, North Korea’s most important ally and trading partner, has reiterated calls for calm during the current crisis.
Beijing has expressed frustration with both Pyongyang’s repeated nuclear and missile tests and with behaviour from South Korea and the United States, such as military drills, that it sees as escalating tensions.
“China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten US soil first and the US retaliates, China will stay neutral,” the Global Times, which is widely read but does not represent government policy, said in an editorial.
“If the US and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so,” it said.
North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency said on Thursday its army would complete plans in mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land near Guam.
Trump said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was not going to get away with his “horrific” comments and disrespecting America.
“Let’s see what he does with Guam. He does something in Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody’s seen before, what will happen in North Korea,” Trump told reporters in New Jersey, without offering specifics.
Shortly after Trump spoke, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis told reporters the United States still preferred a diplomatic approach to the North Korean threat and that a war would be “catastrophic”.
Asked if the United States was ready if North Korea made a hostile act, he said: “We are ready.”
Tensions rise
Tension in the region has risen since the reclusive North staged two nuclear bomb tests last year and launched two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July in defiance of world powers.
Trump has said he would not allow Pyongyang to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States.
Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister of US ally Australia, said he had discussed North Korea and recent United Nations sanctions imposed on Pyongyang with US Vice President Mike Pence in a telephone call on Thursday.
“His view and the view of the administration is that the way to resolve the situation with North Korea … is through these economic sanctions. That’s the preferred way to deal with it,” Turnbull said in a radio interview.
“But of course if North Korea decides to carry out some of its violent threats, then obviously terrible consequences will follow, and there’s no point ducking that inevitable consequence,” he said, promising Australian military support for the United States if it was attacked.
On Thursday, US and Japanese troops began an 18-day live fire exercise on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, which was to include rocket artillery drills and involve 3,500 troops.
The Northern Viper drills are one of the scheduled exercises that Japan’s Self Defence Forces conducts regularly with their US counterparts and are not a response to the latest tensions.
South Korean and US troops are also gearing up for an annual joint drill from Aug. 21, called the Ulchi Freedom Guardian, in which up to 30,000 U.S. troops will take part.
South Korea’s national security adviser Chung Eui-yong and his US counterpart H.R. McMaster spoke on the phone for 40 minutes early on Friday, a spokesman for the presidential Blue House in Seoul said.
The two discussed responses to North Korean provocations and the security situation on the Korean peninsula, he said.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in is expected to deliver a speech next week to mark Liberation Day, when the Korean peninsula secured freedom from the rule of Japan. Moon is likely to highlight his policy on North Korea on the holiday, the only one the two Koreas share.
The United States and South Korea remain technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
Markets rattled
Asian stocks slumped on Friday as tensions increased, sending investors into less risky assets such as gold, the yen and US government bonds.
“This situation is beginning to develop into this generation’s Cuban Missile crisis moment,” ING’s chief Asia economist Robert Carnell said in a research note. “While the US President insists on ramping up the war of words, there is a decreasing chance of any diplomatic solution.”
Former defence officials and experts say any military conflict with North Korea would likely escalate quickly to the use of nuclear weapons, bringing catastrophic casualties and an untold economic impact worldwide.
On Guam, a tropical island more than 3,000 km (2,000 miles) to the southeast of North Korea, residents remained sanguine.
“We’re just gonna sit down and barbecue here and have fun,” said Peter Toves, 47, a Guam native who rents out kayaks and jetskis. “There’s nothing we can do, just wait.”
Reuters
Not if the radioactive from nukes contaminate China and Russia. USa should not be stupid to risj Russia and China’s anger.
North Korea is trash talking, mostly intended for a domestic audience. Why do NK suddenly do this? NK has been trash talking for at least five decades! The highly respected Colonel Wilkerson say the US is clueless! https://youtu.be/S3TH5bj55rs
Co-incidentally the US Deep State, General James Clapper (former NSA) pops up from nowhere on CNN and say this NK war rhetoric is dangerous. General Mattis says the same. The #1. War hawk Senator McCain too, is concerned about Trumpspromotion od war language!
The CIA has made an AMAZING discovery! CIA found the North Korean regime to be rational and you can even talk to the North Koreans! Who knew?
Well, as we know, Confuciusnism is complicated and tricky. One thing that is sure thing is that "propaganda has always been the best tool in any communist regime to hide its true feeling or plan about the next move!" N. Korea has been fed and coached by China for decades. China has also used NK as a tool of propaganda to implement her foreign policy.
Wow, AT you’ve really got some great reporters. If Kim is actually daft enough to launch a missile spread on Guam or any other US military facility or an ally civilian target you know this president will unleash the dogs of war resulting in a rapid and violent immediate win with a desperately high casualty rate on all sides, but NK will be obliterated. Not condoning it, just pointing out obvious fact. I figured that China was intending to defend NK with the build up. Let’s not pull another Viet Nam now China. We are going to be forced to whack NK upon their going insane enough to actually launch and announce it as an attack. We are not going to attack first I’m sure. We will respond and you do need to stay neutral. It seems clear you could have prevented this on your border, but you decided to allow Kim to pull the US into a war. The trade you do with us alone should show you we are not a threat to you, yet you maintain this bulldog on the porch situation allowing your dog to draw real fire and risk real annihilation. For what?? Why are you so afraid of a democracy next door? We are just different ideologies. You run yours and the rest of the world will do as it sees fit.
China said was that it would stop US and South Korea from invading North Korea. This will allay North Korea’s fear of being attacked. China also cautioned North Korea that it will be neutral if North Korea launch an attack first. Very principled and measured stance of China. Now USA has to respond by stopping its military exercises on North Korea’s borders or at least downsize the exercises which involve 350,000 soldiers. It should also remove THAAD immediately or China should let all sanctions lapse in 2 years time.
If war breaks out between two such heavily nuclear armed countries, no one is going to win the war. Everyone will be the looser, in fact the whole world. That will be the only time where everyone will regret for their inhuman act but too late to react. So let’s pray it gets resolve peacefully.
Ken Nguyen hit the nail on the head. China is guaranteeing North Korea’s safety and that removes their need to build nuclear weapons. China needs to make it formal so North Korea can relax permanently. Next, the world should help North Korea with trade so they don’t need to sell this horrible technology and expertise as a means of income.
Zheng He They say beauty is in the eyes of the observer. Apparently in your world truth is also in the eyes of the observer.