The US welcomed China’s move to shut down North Korean businesses in the country, hinting at a possible positive turn in the two countries’ relations.
Critics, however, maintain that harsher penalties must be imposed on Chinese banks suspected of dealing with North Korea, and that Kim Jong-un has little cause to give up the nuclear program. 

Speaking during a Senate hearing on the effectiveness of sanctions in getting the North to give up its nuclear weapons program, Susan Thornton, acting assistant secretary of state for Asian and Pacific affairs, said that Beijing was making progress. 

“We recognize that the success of this pressure strategy will depend on heavy cooperation from our international partners, especially Beijing,” Thornton said. 

“We are working closely with China to execute this strategy and are clear-eyed in viewing the progress growing, if uneven, that China has made on this front.”

China recently backed two UN Security Council resolutions sanctioning Pyongyang for its ballistic missile and nuclear tests. On Thursday, China’s Commerce Ministry revealed that North Korean businesses including China-North Korea joint ventures have been ordered to shut down within 120 days.

“Our task now is to hold China and others to these internationally binding obligations and to convince China’s leaders to more fully exert their decisive leverage over North Korea,” Thornton said, emphasizing that sanctions implementation would be the key to “really upping the pressure on the Kim regime.”

The official also noted a policy shift on China’s part.

“We’re trying to turn China’s position from looking at North Korea as some kind of asset, to looking at them as a liability,” she said.

“I think that Secretary (of State Rex) Tillerson has made a lot of progress on that front.”

Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that gave more authority to the Treasury Department to cut off banks and companies doing business with North Korea from the US financial system.

But, with a new round of UN-backed sanctions in place, the mood has improved, and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson set off on Thursday for Beijing for talks with senior Chinese leaders.

Tillerson was scheduled to confer this weekend with President Xi Jinping, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, who is the country’s ranking diplomat, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The goal of these meetings is to prepare Trump’s first visit to China as president, scheduled for November as part of a tour of Asia.

“But certainly North Korea will be on the table for discussion,” Tillerson told reporters Wednesday.

Washington hopes that a combination of UN and US sanctions and a strong signal from Pyongyang’s main trade partner China will convince Kim Jong-un’s regime of its isolation.

If the young autocrat then tones down his war of words with a no less provocative Trump and halts his nuclear and missile tests, he might be drawn to the table to discuss disarmament.

It will be a tough diplomatic slog. But while some US officials tout a “military option” and Trump has threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea, it seems to be the only game in town.

China’s cooperation, however, will be key. And Trump, a proponent of a muscular “America first” foreign policy, has sometimes chafed at having to consider Beijing’s diplomatic sensitivities.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)