Tag Archives: China

Chinese military conducts live-fire drills, weapons tests

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s military has conducted live-fire drills and weapons tests in the northeastern Bohai Sea close to the Korean peninsula, the country’s defense ministry said on Tuesday.

In a brief statement late on Tuesday, the ministry said the tests of new missiles and weapons were carried out by the People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Force “in recent days” and were designed to raise operational capability so as to effectively deal with national security threats. No further details were provided.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is overseeing a sweeping modernization of the country’s armed forces, with an emphasis on technological innovation and naval capability as it seeks to project greater power in the disputed South China Sea.

While no other country has claims in the busy Bohai Sea, the drills come amid heightened tension on the Korean peninsula, including Chinese anger at the deployment of the U.S. anti-missile defense system THAAD in South Korea last month.

At a regular news briefing last month, China’s defense ministry responded to questions about the THAAD deployment by foreshadowing the weapons tests, saying they were necessary to safeguard its national security.

(Reporting by Philip Wen; Editing by SImon Cameron-Moore)

Japan, China to boost financial ties amid protectionist, North Korean tensions

Chinese Finance Minister Xiao Jie (R) and Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso shake hands during their bilateral meeting, on the sidelines of Asian Development Bank (ADB) annual meeting, in Yokohama, Japan, Saturday, May 6, 2017. REUTERS/Koji Sasahara/Pool

By Tetsushi Kajimoto

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) – Japan and China agreed to bolster economic and financial cooperation, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Saturday, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist stance and tension over North Korea weigh on Asia’s growth outlook.

Chinese Finance Minister Xiao Jie, who missed a trilateral meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts on Friday for an emergency domestic meeting, had flown in for the talks with Aso, seeking to dispel speculation his absence had any diplomatic implications.

“We actively exchanged views on economic and financial situations in Japan and China and our cooperation in the financial field,” Aso told reporters after the meeting, which included senior finance ministry and central bank officials.

“It was significant that we reconfirmed the need of financial cooperation between the two countries while sharing our experiences in dealing with economic policies and structural issues,” he added.

The two countries agreed to launch joint research on issues of mutual interest – without elaborating – and to report the outcomes at the next talks, which will be held in 2018 in China.

They did not discuss issues such as currencies and geopolitical risks from North Korea’s nuclear and missile program during the dialogue, held on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) annual meeting in Yokohama, eastern Japan, Aso said.

Relations between Japan and China have been strained over territorial rows and Japan’s occupation of parts of China in World War Two, though leaders have recently sought to mend ties through dialogue.

Still, China’s increasing presence in infrastructure finance has alarmed some Japanese policymakers, who worry that Beijing’s new development bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), may overshadow the Japan-backed ADB.

Shortly before the bilateral talks on Saturday, Xiao voiced hope that the ADB will boost ties with China’s high profile “One Belt One Road” infrastructure development initiatives.

“China hopes the ADB … strengthens the strategic ties between its programs and the One Belt One Road initiative to maximize synergy effects and promote Asia’s further development,” Xiao told the ADB’s annual gathering.

Japan and China do agree on the need to respect free trade, which they see as crucial to Asia’s trade-dependent economies.

Finance officials from Japan, China and South Korea agreed to resist all forms of protectionism in Friday’s trilateral meeting, taking a stronger stand than G20 major economies against the protectionist policies advocated by Trump.

China has positioned itself as a supporter of free trade in the wake of Trump’s calls to put America’s interests first and pull out of multilateral trade agreements.

Japan has taken a more accommodative stance toward Washington’s argument that trade must not just be free but fair.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alexander Smith)

After North Korea criticism, China says wants to be good neighbor

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a performance held for participants of the ruling party's party meeting, December 2016. KCNA/via Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Thursday it wants to be good neighbors with North Korea, after the isolated country’s state news agency published a rare criticism of Chinese state media commentaries calling for tougher sanctions over the North’s nuclear program.

The United States has urged China, North Korea’s only major ally, to do more to rein in the North’s nuclear and missile programs, which have prompted an assertive response from the Trump administration, warning that an “era of strategic patience” is over.

A commentary carried by North Korea’s KCNA news agency referred to recent commentaries in China’s People’s Daily and Global Times newspapers, which it said were “widely known as media speaking for the official stand of the Chinese party and government”.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China’s position was consistent and clear.

“China’s position on developing friendly, good-neighborly relations with North Korea is also consistent and clear,” Geng told reporters, in response to a question about the KCNA commentary.

China was unswervingly devoted to the denuclearization of the peninsula and maintaining peace and security and resolving the issue through talks, Geng added.

The WeChat account of the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, in its reaction to the KCNA piece, said it was clear that North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities were a threat to China.

“North Korea has not left the Cold War behind and does not want to, and is enmeshed in a web of its own spinning of antagonism between its enemies and itself,” it said.

China has repeatedly said that while it is happy to help arrange talks, it is ultimately up to the United States and North Korea to sort out their differences.

Diplomats say Washington and Beijing are negotiating a possible stronger U.N. Security Council response – such as new sanctions – to North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

The KCNA commentary charged that the Chinese articles had attempted to shift the blame to Pyongyang for “deteriorated relations” between China and North Korea and U.S. deployment of strategic assets to the region.

It also accused China of “hyping up” damage caused by North Korean nuclear tests to China’s three northeastern provinces.

Chinese state media calls for North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program were “a wanton violation of the independent and legitimate rights, dignity and supreme interests” of North Korea and constituted “an undisguised threat to an honest-minded neighboring country which has a long history and tradition of friendship”, KCNA said.

The United States has sent a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Korean waters and a pair of strategic U.S. bombers flew training drills with South Korea and Japan in another show of strength this week.

“The reckless military provocation is pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula closer to the brink of nuclear war,” KCNA said on Tuesday.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has been high for weeks, driven by concern that North Korea might conduct its sixth nuclear test, also in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

(Reporting by Michael Martina; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

China urges all sides in North Korea standoff to ‘stop irritating’ one another

People watch a TV broadcasting of a news report on North Korea's missile launch, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Wednesday called on all parties in the Korean standoff to stay calm and “stop irritating each other” a day after North Korea said the United States was pushing the region to the brink of nuclear war.

The United States has urged China, reclusive North Korea’s lone major ally, to do more to rein in its neighbor’s nuclear and missile programs which have prompted an assertive response from the Trump administration, warning that the “era of strategic patience” is over.

The United States has sent a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Korean waters and a pair of strategic U.S. bombers flew training drills with the South Korean and Japanese air forces in another show of strength this week.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, asked about the bomber flights, the drills and North Korea’s response, stressed that the situation was “highly complex” and sensitive.

“The urgent task is to lower temperatures and resume talks,” he told reporters.

“We again urge all relevant parties to remain calm and exercise restraint, stop irritating each other, work hard to create an atmosphere for contact and dialogue between all sides, and seek a return to the correct path of dialogue and negotiation as soon as possible.”

The flight of the two bombers came as U.S. President Donald Trump raised eyebrows when he said he would be “honored” to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the right circumstances, and as his CIA director landed in South Korea for talks.

North Korea said the bombers conducted “a nuclear bomb dropping drill against major objects” in its territory at a time when Trump and “other U.S. warmongers are crying out for making a preemptive nuclear strike” on the North.

“The reckless military provocation is pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula closer to the brink of nuclear war,” the North’s official KCNA news agency said on Tuesday.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has been high for weeks, driven by concern that the North might conduct its sixth nuclear test in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

In a telephone call with his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged all sides to exercise restraint and return to the correct path of talks as soon as possible, state radio reported.

CHINA OPPOSES THAAD

The U.S. military’s THAAD anti-missile defense system has reached initial operational capacity in South Korea, U.S. officials told Reuters, although they cautioned that it would not be fully operational for some months.

China has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the system, whose powerful radar it fears could reach inside Chinese territory, just as Trump has praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for his efforts to rein in North Korea.

It was widely feared North Korea could conduct a nuclear test on or around April 15 to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the North’s founding leader, Kim Il Sung, or on April 25, the 85th anniversary of the foundation of its Korean People’s Army.

The North has conducted such tests or missile launches to mark significant events in the past.

Instead, North Korea held a big military parade featuring a display of missiles on April 15 and then a large, live-fire artillery drill 10 days later.

Trump drew criticism in Washington on Monday when he said he would be “honored” to meet North Korea’s young leader.

“If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honored to do it,” Trump told Bloomberg News.

Trump did not say what conditions would be needed for such a meeting to occur or when it could happen.

“Clearly conditions are not there right now,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.

Trump warned in an interview with Reuters on Thursday that a “major, major conflict” with North Korea was possible, while China said last week the situation on the Korean peninsula could escalate or slip out of control.

Trump has stepped up outreach to allies in Asia to secure their cooperation to pressure North Korea, and over the weekend he spoke with the leaders of Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines in separate phone calls.

The U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, Joseph R. Donovan, told reporters Indonesia was among several countries that the United States was urging take a “fresh look” at their North Korea ties.

He declined to go into details of what action the United States wanted, but said: “We are hoping that countries will look at what they can be doing to bring North Korea around to meaningful steps to end its nuclear and missile programs.”

Trump’s calls to the Asian leaders came after North Korea test-launched a missile that appeared to have failed within minutes, its fourth successive failed launch since March. It has conducted two nuclear tests and a series of missile-related activities at an unprecedented pace since the beginning of last year.

The North is technically still at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty, and it regularly threatens to destroy the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday meanwhile spoke by telephone about Syria and “about how best to resolve the very dangerous situation in North Korea”, the White House said.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland in WASHINGTON and Tom Allard in JAKARTA; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Robert Birsel)

As U.S. and China find common ground on North Korea, is Russia the wild card?

FILE PHOTO: The Friendship and the Broken bridges over the Yalu River connecting the North Korean town of Sinuiju and Dandong in China's Liaoning province, April 16, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

By James Pearson and Alexei Chernyshev

SEOUL/VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) – When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent Lunar New Year greetings this year, the first card went to Russian President Vladimir Putin, ahead of leaders from China and other allies of the isolated country, according to its official news agency.

Some academics who study North Korea argue Kim could be looking for Russia to ease any pain if China, which accounts for about 90 percent of North Korea’s trade, steps up sanctions against the isolated country as part of moves to deter its nuclear and missile programs.

U.S. President Donald Trump lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping last week for Beijing’s assistance in trying to rein in Pyongyang. A day later, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pressed the United Nations Security Council to impose more sanctions to further isolate Pyongyang.

There is no sign of any sustainable increase in trade between Russia and North Korea, but business and transport links between the two are getting busier.

A new ferry service starting next week will move up to 200 passengers and 1,000 tonnes of cargo six times a month between North Korea and the Russian port of Vladivostok.

Shipping data on Thomson Reuters Eikon shows there has been a recent steady flow of oil tanker traffic from Vladivostok into North Korean east coast ports.

Last Thursday, five North Korean-flagged oil tankers had loaded up at Vladivostok-area ports and identified North Korean ports as their destination. It was not known what products they were carrying.

Earlier this year, Russian government officials visited Pyongyang to discuss more cooperation in rail transport, according to media reports. A Russian-built railway link between the Russian eastern border town of Khasan and the North Korean port of Rajin has been used to carry some coal, metals and various oil products.

“North Korea does not care about China’s pressure or sanctions because there is Russia next door,” said Leonid Petrov, a North Korea expert at Australia National University.

“Pyongyang has been playing off Beijing and Moscow for half a century, letting them compete for the right to aid and influence North Korea.”

Russia, especially Vladivostok, is also home to one of the largest overseas communities of North Koreans in the world, and they send home tens of thousands of dollars in much-needed hard currency each month.

Speaking at the United Nations last week, Tillerson called on states to sever diplomatic and financial ties with Pyongyang and suspend the flow of North Korean guest workers. The Security Council has not yet agreed on any course of action.

While Russia has not indicated it will oppose U.N. sanctions or seek to dilute them, its ties with the United States are fraught, which could complicate its joining any U.S.-led initiative on North Korea.

Trump and Putin spoke in a telephone call on Tuesday and discussed North Korea, among other issues, both sides said. There was no word of any agreement.

“LOYAL PARTNER”

Samuel Ramani, a Russia expert at Oxford University, said support for the Pyongyang regime could bring economic benefits for Moscow. It would demonstrate Russia was “a loyal partner to anti-Western regimes facing international isolation and sanctions”, he said.

“As Russia has close economic links with other countries at odds with the West, like Iran, Venezuela and Syria, this symbolic dimension of the Russia-North Korea relationship has strategic significance.”

The United States is calling for an embargo in oil sales to North Korea, which imports all its fuel needs. China, North Korea’s main supplier, is unlikely to agree because that would be potentially destabilizing for the Pyongyang regime, but it may impose curbs on the trade, experts say.

China exports about 500,000 tonnes of crude and 270,000 tonnes of products each year, oil industry sources in China say. Russia, the other major supplier of oil to North Korea, exported about 36,000 tonnes of oil products in 2015, the latest year for which figures are available, according to U.N. data.

Russia has already taken over the supply of jet fuel to North Korea after China halted exports two years ago, according to the industry sources in China.

Russia is also the source of foreign exchange for North Korea, mostly from Vladivostok.

The city of 600,000 people, just about 100 km (60 miles) from the border with North Korea, is home to thousands of North Koreans who mainly work on construction or do home renovations. A city web site advertises “Korean Professional Contractors” and says they work “Cheaply and Fast”.

One North Korean man, who works as a handyman, told Reuters he was obliged to hand over a portion of his income – $500 – to the North Korean state each month. Thin and in his 30s, he did not disclose his monthly income, but said he charged 4,000 roubles (about $70) for a day’s labor.

The man said he had worked in Russia for 11 years, leaving his wife and daughter back home whom he only saw on rare visits.

Like all North Koreans, he wore a badge on his lapel bearing the portrait of late North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung.

“It’s better here than in North Korea,” said the man, who did not want to be named.  “It’s a very difficult life there. Here you can make money.”

But the most symbolic upturn in ties between Russia and North Korea is the start of regular trips of the Mangyongbong ferry from Monday between Vladivostok and the North Korean town of Rajin.

Vladimir Baranov, the head of Vladivostok-based Investstroitrest company, told Reuters his company had chartered the Mangyongbong and would be the general agent for the ferry route. The aging boat used to ferry tourists between Japan and North Korea, but Tokyo banned its visits in 2006 as part of sanctions against Pyongyang.

An editorial in Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper described the ferry service to Russia as “a move that puts a damper on international efforts to strengthen the encirclement of North Korea aimed at halting its nuclear and missile development.”

Still, despite the differences with the United States and the existing links with North Korea, experts say Russia is unlikely to sharp increase trade with Pyongyang because of its low foreign exchange reserves and general unreliability.

“All trade with North Korea has to be subsidized,” said Andrei Lankov, a Russian North Korea expert at Seoul’s Kookmin University. “I do not see the Russian government spending its dwindling currency reserves to support the regime they despise and see as incurably ungrateful, and also prone to risky adventurism”.

(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova, Natalia Chumakova, Gleb Gorodyankin, Alexander Winning and Andrew Osborn in Moscow, Steve Holland in Washington,; Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Chen Aizhu and Josephine Mason in Beijing; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

China welcomes ASEAN summit declaration on South China Sea

An aerial view of China occupied Subi Reef at Spratly Islands in disputed South China Sea April 21, 2017. REUTERS/Francis Malasig/Pool

BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Tuesday welcomed a softer stand taken by Southeast Asian countries on the disputed South China Sea at a weekend summit, saying it showed efforts to ease tension were working.

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) dropped references to “land reclamation and militarization” from its chairman’s statement this year at the end of its summit in the Philippine capital, Manila.

The reference had been included last year and was even in an earlier, unpublished version of the statement, seen by Reuters on Saturday.

Two ASEAN diplomats said that this year, China had pressed ASEAN chair the Philippines to keep China’s contentious activities in the strategic waterway off ASEAN’s official agenda.

China is not a member of the 10-member bloc and did not attend the summit but it is extremely sensitive about the content of its statements.

It has often been accused of trying to influence the drafting of statements to muzzle what it sees as challenges to its sweeping sovereignty claim.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang did not directly answer a question on whether China had exerted pressure over the statement.

“Since last year, with the joint efforts of China and ASEAN countries including the Philippines, temperatures in the South China Sea situation have gone down and things have eased up. I think this accords with the interests of countries in the region,” Geng told a daily news briefing.

“The relevant situation at this ASEAN summit again fully shows the positive changes in the South China Sea situation and that the joint wish of countries in this region is to seek stability, promote cooperation and seek development, and this should be respected and supported by all sides.”

China has reacted angrily to individual members of the regional bloc expressing their concern about its rapid reclamation of reefs in the Spratlys islands and its installation of missile systems on them.

Philippine foreign ministry official Zaldy Patron, who is in-charge of ASEAN affairs, said nobody at the summit had pushed strongly on the South China Sea issue, or mentioned anything about land reclamation and militarization.

“But on the other hand, the leaders highlighted improving relations between ASEAN and China,” Patron said in Manila.

The softer statement comes as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte seeks to bury the hatchet with China after years of wrangling over its maritime assertiveness and over-lapping claims.

After lobbying from Duterte, China agreed to let Philippine boats back to the rich fishing ground of the disputed Scarborough Shoal following a four-year blockade.

China claims most of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have competing claims that overlap with China’s.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Manny Mogato in Manila; Editing by Robert Birsel)

China tightens rules on online news, network providers

A map of China is seen through a magnifying glass on a computer screen showing binary digits in Singapore in this January 2, 2014 photo illustration. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Tuesday issued tighter rules for online news portals and network providers, the latest step in President Xi Jinping’s push to secure the internet and maintain strict party control over content.

Xi has made China’s “cyber sovereignty” a top priority in his sweeping campaign to bolster security. He has also reasserted the ruling Communist Party’s role in limiting and guiding online discussion.

The new regulations, released by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on its website, extend restrictions on what news can be produced and distributed by online platforms, requiring all services to be managed by party-sanctioned editorial staff.

The rules, which come into effect on June 1, apply to all political, economic, military, or diplomatic reports or opinion articles on blogs, websites, forums, search engines, instant messaging apps and all other platforms that select or edit news and information, the administration said.

All such platforms must have editorial staff who are approved by the national or local government internet and information offices, while their workers must get training and reporting credentials from the central government, it said.

Editorial work must be separate from business operations and only public funds can be used to pay for any work, it added.

Under the rules, editorial guidance measures used for the mainstream media will be applied to online providers to ensure they too adhere to the party line, such as requiring “emergency response” measures to increase vetting of content after disasters.

The rules also stipulate that a domestic business that wants to set up a joint venture with a foreign partner, or accept foreign funding, must be assessed by the State Internet Information Office.

Content on China’s internet has never been free of government censorship, though a number of internet companies run news portals that produce relatively independent reporting and opinion pieces.

A number of these platforms were shut down last year, after Xi in April called in a speech for better regulation of China’s internet.

The CAC separately on Tuesday released another set of rules that on June 1 will require “network providers and products” used by people who might touch upon “national security and the public interest” go through a new round of security reviews.

Beijing adopted a cyber security law last year that overseas critics say could shut foreign businesses out of various sectors in China.

(Reporting by Christian Shepherd; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Defiant North Korea hints at nuclear tests to boost force ‘to the maximum’

People watch a TV broadcasting of a news report on North Korea's missile launch, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea.

By Soyoung Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea suggested on Monday it will continue its nuclear weapons tests, saying it will bolster its nuclear force “to the maximum” in a “consecutive and successive way at any moment” in the face of what it calls U.S. aggression and hysteria.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said a “major, major conflict” with North Korea is possible over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, while China said last week the situation on the Korean peninsula could escalate or slip out of control.

In a show of force, the United States has sent the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group to waters off the Korean peninsula to join drills with South Korea to counter a series of threats of destruction from North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

“Now that the U.S. is kicking up the overall racket for sanctions and pressure against the DPRK, pursuant to its new DPRK policy called ‘maximum pressure and engagement’, the DPRK will speed up at the maximum pace the measure for bolstering its nuclear deterrence,” a spokesman for North Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement carried by its official KCNA news agency.

North Korea’s “measures for bolstering the nuclear force to the maximum will be taken in a consecutive and successive way at any moment and any place decided by its supreme leadership,” the spokesman said.

Reclusive North Korea has carried out five nuclear tests and a series of missile tests in defiance of U.N. Security Council and unilateral resolutions. It has been conducting such tests at an unprecedented rate and is believed to have made progress in developing intermediate-range and submarine-launched missiles.

It test-launched a missile on Saturday which Washington and Seoul said was unsuccessful, but which nevertheless drew widespread international condemnation.

‘TOP PRIORITY’

South Korea said the United States had reaffirmed it would shoulder the cost of deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system to counter the North Korean threat, days after Trump said Seoul should pay for the $1 billion battery.

In a telephone call on Sunday, Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, reassured his South Korean counterpart, Kim Kwan-jin, that the U.S. alliance with South Korea was its top priority in the Asia-Pacific region, the South’s presidential office said.

Trump, asked about his message to North Korea after the latest missile test, told reporters: “You’ll soon find out,” but did not elaborate on what the U.S. response would be.

Trump stepped up his outreach to allies in Asia over the weekend to discuss the North Korean threat and make sure all are “on the same page” if action is needed, a top White House official said.

“There is nothing right now facing this country and facing the region that is a bigger threat than what is happening in North Korea,” White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told ABC’s “This Week.”

The THAAD deployment has drawn protests from China, which says the powerful radar that can penetrate its territory will undermine regional security, and from residents of the area in which it is being deployed, worried they will be a target for North Korean missiles.

The United States is seeking more help from China, the North’s major ally, to rein in Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile development. Trump, in the Reuters interview, praised Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as a “good man”.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has been high for weeks over fears the North may conduct a long-range missile test, or its sixth nuclear test, around the time of the April 15 anniversary of its state founder’s birth.

North Korea, technically still at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty, regularly threatens to destroy the United States, Japan and South Korea and has said before it will pursue its nuclear and missile programs to counter perceived U.S. aggression.

(Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Robert Birsel)

ASEAN firms up South China Sea stance as Beijing lobbies over statement

An aerial view of China occupied Subi Reef at Spratly Islands in disputed South China Sea April 21, 2017. REUTERS/Francis Malasig/Pool

By Manuel Mogato and Enrico Dela Cruz

MANILA (Reuters) – Southeast Asian countries have altered a statement to be issued at Saturday’s ASEAN summit to include references to militarization and island-building in the South China Sea, the latest draft shows, in a move likely to frustrate Beijing.

Chinese embassy representatives in Manila had sought to influence the content of the communique by lobbying Philippine officials, two ASEAN diplomatic sources told Reuters.

However, four ASEAN member states disagreed with omitting “land reclamation and militarization” – terms included in the statement issued last year in Laos, but not featured in an earlier draft of this year’s statement seen on Wednesday.

China is not a member of the Association of South East Asian Nations, and is not attending the summit. China embassy officials in Manila could not be reached and China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to request for comment.

ASEAN references to the South China Sea issue typically do not name China. Beijing is extremely sensitive to anything it perceives as a veiled reference to its expansion of its seven manmade islands in the Spratly archipelago, including with hangers, runways, radars and missiles.

The final version of the statement has yet to be agreed, but changes so far indicate ASEAN is resisting moves by China to keep its contentious activities in the strategic waterway off ASEAN’s official agenda.

China’s lobbying, and its burgeoning friendship with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, may not have been enough to influence Manila’s position either.

“The Philippines is under too much pressure,” one of the sources said.

(For graphic on the Scarborough Shoal, click http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/ASEAN-SUMMIT-SOUTHCHINASEA/010021LX3Z6/ASEAN-SUMMIT-SOUTHCHINASEA.jpg)

(For graphic on the turf war on the South China Sea, click http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/1/6/12/index.html)

TABOO TOPIC

This year’s summit comes at a time of uncertainty about U.S. interests in the region and whether it will maintain its maritime presence to counter China’s assertiveness.

Chinese officials pressed for words that might allude to last year’s international arbitration ruling to be kept out of the statement, the diplomats said, particularly the term “full respect for legal and diplomatic processes”.

The latest draft still includes that, although it was moved out of the South China Sea section to another.

“They do not want any phrase linked to the arbitration case,” one source said.

The Hague ruling, in a case brought by the Philippines in 2013, angered China because it invalidated China’s claim of sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea. China refuses to recognize the decision.

As part of his engagement with China, Duterte has decided not to press it to abide by the arbitration award anytime soon. On Thursday he said it was pointless for ASEAN to pressure China.

In his address to open the leaders’ summit, Duterte made no mention of the South China Sea, but touched on many issues central to his 10-month administration.

Duterte mentioned extremism, piracy, interference in a country’s affairs, and his signature fight against drugs, for which he has been widely condemned over the deaths of thousands of Filipinos.

“The illegal drug trade apparatus is massive. But it is not impregnable,” he said. “With political will and cooperation, it can be dismantled, it can be destroyed before it destroys our societies.”

Duterte then hosted two meetings with ASEAN leaders, which were not open to media.

ASEAN and China are hoping to this year agree on a framework to create a code of conduct over the South China Sea, 15 years after committing to draft it. Some ASEAN diplomats doubt China is sincere about agreeing to a set of rules.

In unusually direct comments for an ASEAN Secretary General, Le Luong Minh on Thursday told Reuters the code needed to be legally binding to put a stop to “unilateral actions”, because a previous commitment to play fair had been ignored.

(Additional reporting by John Ruwitch in Shanghai; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Independence push threatens Hong Kong’s autonomy, says Beijing official

FILE PHOTO: A rainbow arches over Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour June 19, 2012. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo

HONG KONG (Reuters) – The legal chief of Beijing’s representative office in Hong Kong said on Saturday growing calls for independence could make the territory’s current “one country, two systems” constitutional framework unsustainable.

Chinese leaders are increasingly concerned about a fledgling independence or secessionist movement in the former British colony of Hong Kong, which returned to mainland rule in 1997 amid promises of wide-ranging autonomy including judicial independence under the formula of “one country, two systems”.

The unusually strong comments by Wang Zhenmin, an official at the Central Liaison Office, China’s top representative office in Hong Kong, came ahead of the 20th anniversary of the handover of power to China.

Hong Kong will be on high alert ahead of the July 1st celebrations when President Xi Jinping is widely expected to attend the swearing in of leader elect Carrie Lam.

Speaking at a seminar in the territory, broadcast on local cable television, Wang attacked the separatist movement and said Hong Kong must act to defend China’s sovereignty.

“The more Hong Kong fails to actively defend (China’s) sovereignty, national security and development interests in accordance with the law, the more wary the country will be about Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and the ‘two systems’. There would be less room for its autonomy,” Wang said.

He said Beijing was also “disheartened” at the prospect separatists might enter the Hong Kong establishment or education system.

“If the two systems have been severely disrupted or even been used to damage one country, (China) will feel very unsafe…If one’s own existence has become a problem, no nation will continue the arrangements of ‘two systems’,” he said, according to footage of the same speech carried on government funded RTHK.

China has promised Hong Kong’s capitalist system would remain unchanged for 50 years, but it has not made clear what will happen in 2047. Some in Hong Kong fear Beijing may look to impose mainland rule on the territory before then.

Last year, China’s parliament intervened in a Hong Kong court case by passing a ruling on the Basic Law, as the territory’s mini-constitution is known.

It was one of Beijing’s most direct interventions into Hong Kong’s legal and political system since the 1997 handover.

Wang previously said on Friday that Hong Kong should have “respect and awe” for China’s system, to which it would have to adapt, government funded RTHK reported on Friday.

(Reporting by Michelle Price; Additional reporting by Venus Wu and Julie Zhu; Editing by Ros Russell)