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Kerry Arrives in China Seeking Help on North Korea Kerry Seeks China’s Help In Defusing Korea Tensions
(about 4 hours later)
BEIJING — Secretary of State John Kerry arrived here on Saturday to seek China’s help in defusing the growing tensions with North Korea. BEIJING — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday that the United States would reduce its missile defenses in Asia if steps are taken to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, a statement intended to elicit China’s help in persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
Even as Mr. Kerry has warned the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, not to launch a medium-range Musudan missile, he has signaled that the Obama administration was interested in resuming talks with North Korea on the condition that the country agrees to discuss the eventual abandonment of its nuclear weapons program. The United States is also hoping China could push North Korea to back away from recent threats that have dramatically raised tensions on the peninsula.
Mr. Kerry has also voiced support for South Korea’s efforts to establish a dialogue with the North. Mr. Kerry’s comments followed a series of meetings with China’s top leadership and implicitly acknowledged that recent American steps to beef up its defenses against the North were causing discomfort in China. 
North Korea’s apparent determination to expand its nuclear weapons program and the American demand that it commit up front to eventually relinquish its nuclear arms has raised the question of whether there is any basis for negotiations. “On missile defense, we discussed absolutely why we are taking the steps we are taking,” Mr. Kerry said, referring to efforts the United States is taking to defend Guam, Hawaii and American allies in Asia against a potential North Korean missile attack. 
Mr. Kerry’s strategy for persuading North Korea to cooperate depends heavily on enlisting China’s support. “Now obviously if the threat disappears — i.e. North Korea denuclearizes — the same imperative does not exist at that point of time for us to have that kind of robust, forward-leaning posture of defense,” Mr. Kerry added. “And it would be our hope in the long run, or better yet in short run, that we can address that.”
“China has an enormous ability to help make a difference here,” Mr. Kerry said on Friday, adding he planned in meetings with Chinese leaders to “lay out a path ahead that can defuse this tension.” China in the past has provided only limited help to the United States in trying to rein in North Korea.
In China on Saturday, Mr. Kerry met Foreign Minister Wang Yi. He was scheduled to meet later in the day with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi. Earlier in the day, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, renewed a pledge to encourage the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. That promise reflected China’s longstanding position, and it remains to be seen how hard China will push its allies in North Korea.
Mr. Wang’s comments came at a particularly delicate time, however, as North Korea has amped up threats to the United States and South Korea following the imposition of United Nations sanctions to punish the North for a nuclear test. The foreign minister’s remarks reflected China’s growing concern over North Korea’s efforts to expand its nuclear program — and over its providing a reason for the United States to build its military standing in the region.
North Korea, under its new leader, Kim Jong-un, has proclaimed itself a “nuclear state” and conducted its third nuclear test. Analysts believe North Korea is also poised to launch a medium-range Musudan missile as a test.
Mr. Kerry said in his remarks that the United States had shared “a very in-depth disc” illustrating the danger that a nuclear North Korea could promote the proliferation of nuclear arms in Asia and the Middle East.
“China and the United States must together take steps in order to achieve the goal of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula,” Mr. Kerry said. “And today we agreed that further discussions to bear down very quickly with great specificity on exactly how we will accomplish this goal.”
North Korea’s apparent determination to expand its nuclear weapons program and the American demand that it commit up front to eventually relinquishing its nuclear arms have raised the question of whether there is any basis for negotiations.
Even before arriving in Beijing, it was clear that Mr. Kerry’s strategy for persuading North Korea to cooperate depends heavily on China’s support.
“China has an enormous ability to help make a difference here,” Mr. Kerry said on Friday, adding that he planned in meetings with Chinese leaders to “lay out a path ahead that can defuse this tension.”
In his meetings on Saturday, Mr. Kerry met with Mr. Wang as well as President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi.
“This is a critical moment,” Mr. Kerry said at the start of his Saturday meeting with Mr. Wang, adding that he hoped “two great powers, China and the United States, can work effectively to solve problems.”“This is a critical moment,” Mr. Kerry said at the start of his Saturday meeting with Mr. Wang, adding that he hoped “two great powers, China and the United States, can work effectively to solve problems.”
Whether the Chinese will prove helpful remains to be seen. The United States has long sought to enlist China’s cooperation in reining in North Korea’s nuclear aspirations. But that has not precluded North Korea for conducting three nuclear tests and test firing ballistic missiles. As tensions have risen in recent weeks amid North Korean threats, the United States has said it would move missile defenses to Guam and dispatched Aegis cruisers equipped with missile defense systems to the region.
Nor does the United States know what China has been telling the North Koreans, including the young and untested Mr. Kim. Bonnie Glaser, an expert on China at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that the Chinese were frustrated with North Korea and were taking some actions, such as cracking down on the flow of illicit North Korean funds through Chinese banks, that were not visible in the West.
“We are not privy to conversations between China and North Korea,” a senior State Department official who is traveling with Mr. Kerry told reporters earlier this week. At the same time, she noted, the Chinese have little desire to publicize what they are doing.
Mr. Kerry has not said what specific requests he plans to put to the Chinese. But the senior State Department official said that the United States wanted China to crack down on the illicit flow of money that moves through North Korean front companies and banks that support its weapons efforts. But the Chinese seem to be irritated as well with the American response to North Korea’s moves, such as sending B-2 bombers to South Korea as part of a military exercise.
The United States, the official said, also wants China to “carry some tough message to Pyongyang and make it clear to them that denuclearization is also their goal.” The state-run news agency Xinhua accused the Obama administration of “fanning the flames” in the North Korean situation.
“It keeps sending more fighter bombers and missile defense ships to the waters of East Asia and carrying out massive military drills with Asian allies in a dramatic display of pre-emptive power,” the agency said Saturday.

Jane Perlez contributed reporting.