Envoys from the United States and China meet to discuss North Korea’s missile launches

*Paromita Das
Sung Kim, the US special envoy, and Liu Xiaoming, his Chinese counterpart, met in Washington on Tuesday to discuss North Korea’s recent missile tests and ways to encourage Pyongyang to engage in negotiations.

“On April 5, Special Representative for the DPRK Sung Kim met with People’s Republic of China (PRC) Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Affairs Liu Xiaoming in Washington, D.C., to discuss recent developments in the DPRK,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.

Price stated that Special Representative Kim condemned the DPRK’s March 24 ICBM launch, which was the latest in a series of increasingly escalatory DPRK actions.
Kim stated that the DPRK’s 13 ballistic missile launches this year were clear violations of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and posed a serious threat to regional stability, and he emphasized the importance of firmly responding to these escalatory actions.

“Kim reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to serious and sustained diplomacy with the DPRK,” a State Department spokesperson added.

Price added that the two envoys also discussed ways to advance the “shared goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and how to encourage the DPRK to engage in meaningful negotiations.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, said on Monday that her country will use nuclear weapons if South Korea threatens it.

She called the South Korean defense minister’s remarks about a pre-emptive strike against North Korea “a very big mistake.”