The United States believes China and Russia have leverage they can use to persuade North Korea not to repeat nuclear bomb tests, according to a senior US administration official. The official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said that while the US had said since May that North Korea was preparing to resume nuclear tests for the first time since 2017, it was unclear when it might conduct such tests. a test. South Korea has also warned of a seventh nuclear test for months, while the United Nations nuclear watchdog said last week that Pyongyang was ready to test. “We have a high level of confidence that they have made preparations,” the US official told Reuters. “We think they could do that … I can’t tell you ‘we think this will be the day for the following reasons,’ because we just don’t have that level of knowledge.” Washington wanted to see Russia and China do everything they could to deter Pyongyang. “We think they (North Korea) are making calculations about the degree of receptivity for others in the region, I think, particularly Russia and China. And I think the Russian and Chinese attitudes do have an influence with them.” The US called for a public meeting of the UN Security Council, where Moscow and Beijing are among the five veto-wielding permanent members, to discuss North Korea after a series of missile launches, including an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that the South Korea and Japan were spotted on Thursday. North Korea is barred from nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches under Security Council sanctions, which have been tightened over the years to try to cut off funding for its weapons programs. But growing discord in the 15-member body, exacerbated by Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, has undermined consensus on how to deal with North Korea. In May, Russia and China vetoed a US-led effort to impose more UN sanctions on Pyongyang over its renewed ballistic missile tests, having supported tougher sanctions in 2017. US-South Korea joint military drills, ‘Vigilant Storm’, which began on Monday, have been delayed due to North Korea’s weapons launches [File: Yonhap via Reuters] The US official said Pyongyang may have delayed resuming nuclear tests because of China, its closest ally, which recently concluded the Communist Party Congress, an event held once every five years. North Korea’s COVID-19 outbreak may also have delayed military developments, he said, making the country “more focused on ways it could get support from China in particular.” “China and Russia have long been on record as opposed to the DPRK’s nuclear program,” the official said, referring to North Korea by its official name. “Well … it is our belief, and certainly our expectation, that they will use the influence they have to try to persuade the DPRK not to conduct a nuclear test.” Reiterating calls for North Korea to resume dialogue with the US, which collapsed due to the easing of sanctions in 2019, the official said Washington was ready to work directly with Pyongyang and discuss humanitarian aid. North Korea has carried out a record number of weapons launches this year and this week’s tests came amid ongoing large-scale military exercises between the US and South Korea, which Pyongyang claims are aggressive and “provocative”. The ICBM was among three ballistic missiles launched Thursday, a day after it launched at least 20 missiles, the most in a single day, including one that landed off the coast of South Korea for the first time. Seoul responded by sending fighter jets to fire surface-to-surface missiles into waters north of its maritime border. On Thursday, the US and South Korea said they were extending the so-called Vigilant Storm drills by a day because of North Korea’s ICBM test, a decision Pyongyang called “very dangerous”. Just before midnight, it fired a barrage of artillery shells into a maritime “deterrence zone” between the two Koreas, according to Seoul’s military. About 80 artillery rounds were fired at 11:28 p.m. (14:28 GMT), the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Friday morning. The barrage was a “clear violation” of the 2018 agreement that established the buffer zone in an effort to reduce tensions between the two countries, he added.
