US has made Peninsula issue tough nut to crack

China has long been doing what it can to reduce tensions on the Korean Peninsula by promoting talks and preventing conflicts.

Despite the fact that the talks failed to yield any result for various reasons, the Six-Party Talks that China initiated to promote the denuclearization of the peninsula — which were held from 2003 to 2008 — speak volumes about the country's earnestness and sincerity in pushing for de-escalation of tensions on the peninsula.

Yet despite China's efforts and the breakthrough that had seemed on the cards in 2018, the situation on the peninsula has never been so complicated. Even more alarmingly, there are signs that a direct confrontation between the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a distinct possibility.

It was therefore not only erroneous but also highly irresponsible for the deputy representative of the United States to the United Nations on Wednesday to point the finger of blame at China for the worsening situation on the peninsula.

While condemning the DPRK's Monday launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, he accused Beijing of emboldening and enabling destabilizing and threatening behavior by Pyongyang.

In her speech, US ambassador Dorothy Shea also inculpated China of muzzling the UN Security Council, claiming that along with Russia, it blocked the Security Council from acting to address the DPRK's "unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs".

She also claimed that the US remains committed to a diplomatic resolution to the challenges posed by those programs.

Yet its weaponization of economic measures, in the form of the sanctions and trade embargo it has imposed against the DPRK along with its allies, has only increased tensions and made the situation even more complicated. These, along with the joint military exercises by the ROK and the US, have only increased Pyongyang's sense of existential angst.

The heavier the unilateral sanctions the US imposes against the DPRK and the more joint military drills it conducts with the ROK, the less secure the DPRK feels and the more acutely it feels the need to develop weapons and even nuclear weapons to defend itself.

The US also turns a blind eye to the fact that it is its own military presence on and around the Korean Peninsula that has led to the uncertainties and escalation of tensions. It is its own continued deployment of advanced weapons such as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles that has resulted in an arms race on the peninsula.

China has long maintained that the issues on the peninsula can be resolved only through talks. However difficult the talks will be, China believes that they will work as long as those involved have the sincerity to reach a genuine understanding regarding each other's concerns.

As a neighboring country, China maintains normal relations with the DPRK as it does with any other country. But that is as far as it goes. Washington takes it for granted that China has leverage over the DPRK, but that is not the case. Beijing is willing to do what it can to promote peace and stability on the peninsula but it cannot tell Pyongyang what to do.

Despite this, some Western media have been happy to jump on Washington's bandwagon, not only demonizing and stigmatizing the DPRK, but also tarring China with the same brush.

Yet what Washington has done to the DPRK has left no room for the country to function as a normal nation. It has constantly toughened its sanctions against the DPRK, which has made life increasingly harder for people in the country. And it has sold arms to the ROK and repeatedly held joint military drills with the ROK with the aim of pushing the DPRK into a costly arms race, disregarding the effects that will have on the well-being of people in the DPRK.

If the DPRK is a hard geopolitical nut for the US to crack, it is of its own doing. Had it worked proactively with China in the Six-Party Talks, the situation on the peninsula would have been different.