China proposes to delay decision on N.K. sanctions after Lunar New Year's Day

China proposes to delay decision on N.K. sanctions after Lunar New Year's Day. February. 02, 2016 07:31. by 베이징=구자룡특파원, 도쿄=장원재특파원 bonhong@donga.com,peacechaos@donga.com.

The chief negotiators for six-way nuclear talks from the U.S. and China reportedly had behind-the-scene contact in Beijing, it has been confirmed.

According to informed sources in Beijing on Monday, Sung Kim, chief negotiator for the six-way talks and Assistant Secretary for East Asia at the U.S. State Department, met with Wu Dawei, chief negotiator for the six-party talks and special representative for the Korean Peninsula affairs at the Chinese foreign ministry, while visiting the Chinese capital on Thursday and Friday last week.

The two met each other soon after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks in Beijing on Wednesday last week and discussed ways to impose sanctions against the North. The two sides are seen as having focused their talks on the intensity of UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea, which went ahead with its fourth nuclear test on January 6. As the bilateral talks failed to produce notable outcome, the contact among their chief negotiators for six-way talks also reportedly failed to generate any specific results.

Beijing, which is opposed to U.S. demand for strong sanctions, is even poised to put off discussions at the U.N. Security Council. The Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun reported on Monday that China had proposed countries concerned to put off the timing to adopt a UN resolution on North Korea after the Lunar New Year’s Day holidays (February 7-13). “The measure was intended to check South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, which are demanding strong sanctions against the North,” the daily said. "If adoption of sanctions is delayed after mid-February, it is feared that motion to pressure Pyongyang could lose momentum." If the adoption is put off until after the weeklong holiday for the Lunar New Year, more than 40 days will have passed since the conduct of the fourth nuclear test by the North. After the first to third nuclear tests by North Korea, it only took several days to up to three weeks until resolutions were adopted by the U.N. Security Council.