France urges China to be more active to resolve Korean Peninsula crisis ⁰

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has urged China to be more active diplomatically to resolve the ongoing crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Le Drian said on Friday that he and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had held a telephone conversation to review the Korean Peninsula situation a day earlier.

During their talk, Le Drian and Wang agreed that another round of United Nations sanctions needed to be implemented. Le Drian said he called on Wang to advise Beijing, which is Pyongyang’s main trade partner, to do its utmost to enforce the sanctions.

The French foreign minister said, “We must anticipate, there is a United Nations resolution that France voted for, to put in place sanctions on North Korea.” He warned that North Korea would, in a few months, have the capability to send long-range ballistic missiles anywhere across the globe. “In a few months that will be a reality,” he warned.

Le Drian said France supported intensifying efforts by the international community to push forward the denuclearization process on the Korean Peninsula. He said Pyongyang needed to resolve its issues through negotiations. “North Korea must find the path to negotiations.”

Wang, for his part, said his country “always strictly carries out related United Nations Security Council resolutions.” Beijing is “playing a positive role in seeking a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula,” he said. Wang added that other parties involved needed to jointly work to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea has repeatedly asked the United States and South Korea to stop military drills in the region. Pyongyang sees the annual drills as a prelude for future invasion. North Korea says it needs its missiles and nuclear weapons as a deterrent against the US and its regional allies’ hostility, aggression and expansionist policy in the region.

Culled from Presstv