Ease Up on North Korea, China Urges
China told the world Wednesday to ease pressure on North Korea, which is being asked to accept international inspection of a nuclear program that regional and Western experts fear is aimed at making a bomb.
A Japanese government spokesman said that Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen told his Japanese counterpart, Michio Watanabe: “It is not good for many nations to pressure one country into a corner.”
Qian and Watanabe met privately in the South Korean capital, where both are leading delegations to the ministerial meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, a loosely knit coalition of 15 Pacific Rim countries.
Pyongyang has denied it is making a nuclear weapon and has resolutely refused to allow inspection of its facilities.
Earlier Wednesday, Secretary of State James A. Baker III, on a nine-day tour of Asia, reiterated to South Korean Foreign Minister Lee Sang Ok that he considered the North Korean nuclear program “the No. 1 security issue in Asia.”
The United States, Japan and South Korea have been coordinating diplomacy against the North Korean nuclear program.
President Bush announced plans in September to withdraw battlefield nuclear weapons from South Korea, and President Roh Tae Woo last week declared that South Korea would be nuclear-free.
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