America’s top military officer urged Beijing on Sunday to use its relationship with Pyongyang to ensure regional stability, while warning North Korea against further dangerous provocations. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, also touched on maritime disputes in Asia, amid fears in Washington that they could spiral dangerously out of control and US concern over China’s military build-up.
With ties sometimes fraught between the two militaries, Mullen stressed the US was in no way seeking to contain China’s dramatic rise, but that the United States would remain active in the Asia Pacific region for a long time. “North Korea and the leadership of North Korea is only predictable in one sense and that is — if you base it historically — they will continue to provocate,” Mullen told reporters after arriving in Beijing, the first visit by a US chairman of the joint chiefs since 2007.
“The provocations I think now are potentially more dangerous than they have been in the past.”
Tensions in Northeast Asia have risen sharply since South Korea accused the North of torpedoing a warship in March 2010, killing 46 sailors. Pyongyang angrily denies the charge but went on to shell a border island in November, killing four South Koreans including two civilians. Six-party nuclear disarmament talks, grouping the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, have been stalled since the North abandoned them in April 2009. It staged its second nuclear test a month later. “All of us are focused on a stable outcome here of what is increasingly a difficult challenge with respect to the leadership in North Korea and what it might do,” Mullen said.
“The Chinese leadership, they have a strong relationship with the leadership in Pyongyang and they exercise that routinely… continuing to do that as they have done in the past is really important.” On a four-day trip to China, Mullen said he would discuss that and other issues in talks with his counterpart General Chen Bingde, also visiting military bases as the two nations seek to bolster their security cooperation.
