Seoul urges China's 'constructive role' after Wang meets N.K. vice FM on day of ICBM launch

▲ This photo, released by China's foreign ministry, shows Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meeting with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong-ho in Beijing on Dec. 18, 2023. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

S Korea-NK-China

Seoul urges China's 'constructive role' after Wang meets N.K. vice FM on day of ICBM launch

By Kim Seung-yeon

SEOUL, Dec. 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korea renewed its call for China to play a "constructive role" Tuesday after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with a visiting senior North Korean official on the day of the North's test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Seoul's foreign ministry made the comment a day after Beijing said North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong-ho had a meeting with Wang on Monday, when Pyongyang fired what it claimed to be a Hwasong-18 ICBM into the East Sea.

North Korea is banned from such missile launches under multiple U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

"China is a responsible permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and a country that has an influence over North Korea. We expect that China will play a constructive role so that North Korea can stop its provocations and return to dialogue," foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said in a briefing.

South Korea strongly condemns the North's ICBM launch as a serious threat to regional peace and international safety, Lim added.

"We will work closely with the United States, Japan and other key partners on ways to respond at the UNSC level, and on independent and multilateral sanctions against North Korea," he said.

The UNSC is set to convene a meeting Tuesday (U.S. time) to discuss the North's latest ICBM launch, although any new resolution against the saber-rattling is unlikely due to the opposition from China and Russia -- two of the five permanent UNSC member states that hold veto power.

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