A Furious China Responds To Latest Sanctions: Demands “U.S. Immediately Correct Its Mistake” Or Suffer Retaliation

Less than 4 hours ago, the US Treasury announced that in the the latest set of actions targeting North Korea’s “WMD program”, among the entities sanctioned would be several Chinese and Russian companies and individuals. We said that “what this latest round of sanctions will achieve, is to further anger Beijing and the local population.” Well, we didn’t even have to wait all day for China to respond on the next morning as it traditionally does, and according to Reuters citing an embassy spokesman, Beijing was so furious with the US “provocation” it scrapped its own protocol of waiting during a “cooldown” period, and instead ripped right back, “urging” the U.S. to “immediately correct its mistake”‘ of sanctioning Chinese firms over North Korea, to avoid impact on bilateral cooperation.

Since the US will not “correct its mistake”, either “immediately” or at any time, China will have no choice but to escalate, in the process making any credible diplomacy involving North Korea impossible, forcing” America’s hand when it comes to North Korea, now that the diplomatic option is out of the picture.

And virtually assuring that there is no hope for a diplomatic resolution of the North Korean crisis, earlier today a North Korean envoy to a UN disarmament forum refused to negotiate its nuclear program, accusing the US and South Korea of using joint military drills to carry out “an aggressive war scenario” and “a secret operation” against the North’s leadership.

“The DPRK will never place its self-defense nuclear deterrence on the negotiating table or step back from the  path it took to bolster the national nuclear force,” a North Korean diplomat stated at the UN disarmament forum in Geneva, as cited by Reuters.

A North Korean envoy to a UN disarmament forum has refused to negotiate its nuclear program, accusing the US and South Korea of using joint military drills to carry out “an aggressive war scenario” and “a secret operation” against the North’s leadership.

“The DPRK will never place its self-defense nuclear deterrence on the negotiating table or step back from the  path it took to bolster the national nuclear force,” a North Korean diplomat stated at the UN disarmament forum in Geneva, as cited by Reuters.

The comment follow a statement by the state-run KCNA news agency on Monday according to which “the situation on the Korean Peninsula has plunged into a critical phase due to the reckless north-targeted war racket of the war maniacs.” Meanwhile, Pyongyang has again threatened to strike the US base in Guam, which it earlier promised to attack if “provoked” by Washington.