Russia, China agree joint approach to N Korea, slam US over missile shield
4 July 2017 5:32 PM GMT
Russia and China have agreed a joint position on North Korea designed to defuse tensions around its missile programme and both want Washington to halt deployment of a missile shield in South Korea, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. Moscow and Beijing had agreed on the need for a simultaneous freezing of North Korea's missile and nuclear programme and large-scale military exercises by the United States and South Korea, the ministry said in a statement.
The statement was released after President Vladimir Putin held talks with visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Kremlin. North Korea said on Tuesday it had successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time, which flew a trajectory that experts said could allow a weapon to hit the US state of Alaska.
The same statement said Moscow and Beijing wanted the United States to immediately halt its deployment of the THAAD anti-missile system to South Korea, a move Washington says is necessitated by the North Korean missile threat. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday hit out at North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un for testing the country's first intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit targets "anywhere in the world" and nudged China to make a "heavy move" to "end this nonsense once and for all".
The announcement on North Korea state television said the "successful" Hwasong-14 missile test was overseen by Kim. It said the projectile had reached an altitude of 2,802km and flew 933km for 39 minutes before hitting a target in the Sea of Japan.
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