The New York Times:
BEIJING — Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Wednesday that if China failed to do more to curb North Korea’s enhanced nuclear capacity, Washington would take steps that China has strongly opposed, including deploying defense systems to protect American allies in Asia.
“This is a threat the United States must take extremely seriously,” Mr. Kerry said of North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal at a news conference with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi. “The United States will take all necessary steps to protect our people and allies. We don’t want to heighten security tensions. But we won’t walk away from any options.”
Mr. Kerry adopted the tough tone after nearly five hours of talks with Mr. Wang that were dominated by North Korea and what the United States and China, a treaty ally of the North, should do in the aftermath of its fourth nuclear test.
The secretary was referring to the deployment of a missile defense system to South Korea that has been under discussion for some time but that the South, an American ally, has resisted because of China’s opposition.
But after the North Korean test on Jan. 6, the South’s president, Park Geun-hye, said she would consider accepting the missile system — called Thaad, for Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense — to better cope with the North’s growing nuclear and missile threats.
China agreed during the talks on Wednesday to new United Nations sanctions against the North, and negotiations on their content will proceed in the coming days, Mr. Wang said. But these new sanctions “must not provoke new tensions,” he said.
A draft of new sanctions was sent to China about 10 days ago, but by the time Mr. Kerry arrived in Beijing, China had not responded in substance, American officials said.
Suggesting that the Obama administration was evincing a little too much concern about the North Korean nuclear test, and that Washington’s attention would soon drift away, Mr. Wang said that China “will not be swayed by specific events or the temporary mood of the moment.”
Mr. Wang stuck to a basic theme, that China’s preference is the reconvening of talks on North Korea. “Sanctions are not an end in themselves,” he said.
Mr. Kerry made clear that the United States’ position was that China, North Korea’s biggest trading partner, needed to use its leverage and what he called its “connections” with the country to pressure it to give up its nuclear arsenal.
Washington would like China to curb exports of oil, including aviation fuel, that help keep the bare-bones North Korean economy afloat. It has also asked China to crack down on its banks and businesses that give the North access to foreign exchange…
