(LEAD) China, others have obligation under U.N. resolutions to engage N. Korea: State Dept.

(ATTN: UPDATES with remarks from a NSC spokesperson, more background in last 5 paras; ADDS photo)
By Byun Duk-kun

WASHINGTON, April 6 (Yonhap) -- China and any other countries that have a relationship with North Korea have an obligation to encourage Pyongyang to halt its provocative actions, a state department spokesperson said Thursday, amid reports that the North is prepared to conduct a nuclear test at anytime.

Vedant Patel, deputy spokesperson for the state department, added the U.S. will continue to implement United Nations Security Council sanctions on North Korea to prevent further escalation.

"We have been very consistent that countries that have influence and relationships with the DPRK have a responsibility to engage with them and to encourage them to cease their dangerous, reckless and destabilizing activities that have the potential to impact not just across the Indo-Pacific but the region more broadly," he told a daily press briefing, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"We believe that needs to be a case under the auspices of the U.N. Security Council as there are a number of U.N. Security Council sanctions in place as it relates to (the) DPRK," he added when asked if the U.S. had any means to pressure China, a close neighbor of North Korea, to stop Pyongyang from conducting what will be its seventh nuclear test.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), earlier said indications of activity have been detected at North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site in what he called a "deeply troubling" development, also noting that the site "remains prepared to support a nuclear test."

North Korea conducted its sixth and last nuclear test in September 2017.

Patel declined to comment when asked if China may have enough influence over Pyongyang to stop the country from conducting a nuclear test.

John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, was more forthcoming in urging China to play a role.

"We know that China has influence in Pyongyang and we have long urged them to use that influence to get Mr. Kim to do the right thing and to be willing to sit down with us as we have said we are, without preconditions to diplomatically try to deal with the denuclearization of the peninsula," he told a White House press briefing, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

China, together with Russia, have successfully blocked more than a dozen U.N. Security Council meetings held since last year to discuss accountability for North Korea's military provocations.

Both China and Russia are veto power-wielding permanent members of the Security Council and have friendly relations with North Korea.

Pyongyang fired 69 ballistic missiles in 2022 alone, marking a new record of ballistic missiles fired in a single year.

bdk@yna.co.kr
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