PARIS: Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry on Tuesday urged the United States to “properly handle” fallout from a slew of leaked cables that revealed Beijing, long seen as North Korea’s protector, would accept a reunited Korean peninsula.
Cables revealed by the WikiLeaks website quoted US diplomats as saying that China increasingly doubts its own influence over Pyongyang and considers the regime’s nuclear programme to be “very troublesome.”
“We hope the US side will properly handle relevant issues,” said Hong Lei
spokesman for the foreign ministry, as WikiLeaks made the latest batch of secret cables public amid heightened tensions between the two parts of the divided Koreas.
“We don’t want to see any disturbance to China-US relations,” Hong added, after leaks showed China turned a blind eye to North Korean missile exports and the top Chinese leadership was behind cyberattacks on Google.
The leaked cables have left diplomats worldwide red-faced and drew the ire of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who called their release an “attack” on the US and the world.
The memos became public a week after North Korea shelled a South Korean border island, killing four people and sending tensions soaring.
