WASHINGTON: China’s ambassador to Washington on Friday called on the US to refrain from making threats over North Korea, which a day earlier launched another missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.
Ambassador Cui Tiankai told reporters at an embassy event: “Honestly, I think the US should be doing ... much more than now, so that there’s real effective international cooperation on this issue.”
“They should refrain from issuing more threats. They should do more to find effective ways to resume dialogue and negotiation,” he said.
President Donald Trump and others in the US and beyond have urged China to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on its Communist ally to help resolve the standoff over North Korea’s weapons programs.
China fought alongside North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, in which Chinese leader Mao Zedong lost his eldest son, and Beijing has long been Pyongyang’s chief ally and primary trade partner.
But the Chinese government has pushed back against the notion that it has any control over Pyongyang, and says it is the US that should be doing more.
Trump tweeted earlier this month that the US was considering halting trade with countries doing business with North Korea.
Cui on Friday cautioned against putting China-US trade on the table.
“Efforts to undermine Sino-US trade, or even slapping sanctions on China, I think would be off-target,” the Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoted Cui as saying on Friday at a Chinese National Day reception.
“If someone were to pressure China or impose sanctions on China over the DPRK, it would not be supported by many US citizens,” Cui said, referring to North Korea by the acronym for its official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“Workers at US airplane factories, farmers growing soybeans, companies that sell smartphones to China, manufacturers that enjoy large market shares in China, companies in the service sector that have gained trade surplus in China, US states that engage in robust trade with China would all stand against it,” Xinhua quoted him as saying.
China’s Washington envoy says US should stop threats over North Korea
China’s Washington envoy says US should stop threats over North Korea
Ukraine, Russia exchange POWs for first time in months
- The two sides have in the past conducted several rounds of prisoner swaps
- “Today’s exchange came after a long pause, and it is critical that we were able to make it happen,” Zelensky said
KYIV: Ukraine and Russia have conducted their first prisoner exchange in months, each releasing at least 157 people, both countries said Thursday, amid US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the war.
The two sides have in the past conducted several rounds of prisoner swaps, one of the rare areas of direct cooperation between Ukraine and Russia amid the four-year war, but last month Kyiv accused Moscow of halting the exchanges.
On Thursday, amid three-way talks in Abu Dhabi, the countries swapped 157 captured soldiers and civilians each in an exchange mediated by Washington — the first since October.
“Today’s exchange came after a long pause, and it is critical that we were able to make it happen. I thank everyone who works to make these exchanges possible,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
Images he posted showed the released prisoners, their heads freshly shaven, wrapped in Ukrainian flags and smiling amid falling snow.
Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said among the 157 Ukrainians released “are seven civilians and those whom the Russians unlawfully convicted.”
Zelensky’s aide Kyrylo Budanov said that in the group of the freed prisoners were 19 Ukrainians “who were illegally sentenced, 15 of them to life imprisonment.”
Russia, who said the United States and United Arab Emirates acted as mediators for the exchange, announced earlier it had handed over 157 Ukrainian soldiers and that 157 Russian servicemen were returned.
“In addition, three Russian citizens, residents of the Kursk region... will be returned home,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement.
Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region in 2024.
