On Friday US officials met to discuss the North Korean nuclear situation with Chinese officials in Beijing. The meeting was between US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg as well as the Foreign Minister of China, Yang Jiechi.
Michael Hammer remarked on the meetings stating, “We, the United States, had wide-ranging talks on Sino-US relations and the security situation in Northeast Asia.”
The US is still meeting with China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea to attempt to find a solution to the nuclear dilemma in North Korea. However the meetings between these nations have yielded little progress and only seem to have contributed further to the frustrations of North Korea.
Since these meetings began several years ago, North Korea has launched a long range missile earlier this year despite adamant warnings from the parties mentioned above. Just a few weeks later, North Korea made an announcement that they had staged another Nuclear missile test since the first in 2006. Why would North Korea make such an announcement? It seems to me that they are trying to create an image for themselves. They are trying to come off as a militarily sophisticated nation in order to merit more diplomatic negotiation power with the rest of the global powers. I believe that North Korea would not have announced their nuclear missile test unless they wanted to merit some sort of reaction from world powers.
Thus far Russia and China have been remiss about imposing sanctions on North Korea. However all nations are growing increasingly dissatisfied with North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
