DPRK dominates agenda of China-US top diplomats meeting

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Visiting Washington, Chinese State Councilor, also Foreign Minister, Wang Yi told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday that if the United States seeks peace with Pyongyang and wants to make history, "now is the time" for the two countries' leaders to hold their first-ever summit.

The world saw a dramatic change of tone last week when the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) condemned the latest United States-Republic of Korea (ROK) air combat drills, suspended North-South talks and threatened to scrap the summit if Pyongyang was pushed toward "unilateral nuclear abandonment."

On Wednesday, asking whether the meeting would go ahead, US President Donald Trump said that "it could very well happen. Whatever it is, we'll know next week about Singapore."

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hold a joint news conference after their meeting at the State Department in Washington, US, May 23, 2018. /Reuters Photo

Before the joint press conference with State Councilor Wang Yi, Pompeo told a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that he was "very hopeful" the summit would take place but the decision was ultimately up to DPRK's leader Kim Jong Un.

"A bad deal is not an option," Pompeo said in his written opening statement for the hearing. "If the right deal is not on the table, we will respectfully walk away."

Pompeo said a US-led sanctions pressure campaign would not be eased until the DPRK gives up nuclear weapons.

“We have made zero concessions to Chairman Kim and have no intention to do so,” he said. "Our posture will not change until we see credible steps taken toward the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he declared.

When meeting his Chinese counterpart, Pompeo said the United States expects all countries, including China to "meet their obligations" to enforce sanctions on Pyongyang.

The last nuclear site

Pyongyang has asked foreign journalists from the US, the UK, Russia, the ROK and China to witness the demolition of the Punggye-ri nuclear site in the north, where Pyongyang conducted its all six nuclear underground tests.

CGTN Twitter screenshot

CGTN's reporter Han Peng is among the dozens of reporters to witness the closure. They arrived in the port city of Wonsan on Wednesday, where they are waiting to be guided to the testing site by DPRK authorities.

Read more:

Reporter's journal: Uncertainties back and forth on ground before we finally depart from Wonsan

On the ground in the DPRK: ROK journalists will be present after a one-day delay

A look at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site that the DPRK is to destroy

ROK's media group leave for the Wonsan airport, at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, ROK, May 23, 2018. /VCG Photo‍

The South China Sea

The United States revoked an invitation to China to the 2018 Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC). The world’s largest joint naval exercise is hosted by the US and held every two years.

The June-August 2018 exercises would have been the third consecutive time the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy would have attended the exercises.

"The United States is committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific. China’s continued militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea only serve to raise tensions and destabilize the region,” US Department of Defense Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan said in a press release.

Chinese guided missile destroyer Xi’an heads out to cooperate with US hosts and over 20 other navies of the Pacific at Pearl Harbor, in RIMPAC 2016. /CGTN Photo

Wang said the US's withdrawal of the invitation for China is “very non-constructive.”

The decision “is unhelpful to mutual understanding” between the two powers, and China is urging the US to change its “negative mindset," the foreign minister said.

China's deployments in the water are necessary in defense of its sovereign territory, he added, by likening China defense facilities to the US military presence in Hawaii and the US Pacific territory of Guam.