China urges UNSC resolution to make North Korea 'pay price'

Munich: China will back a UN Security Council resolution to make North Korea "pay the necessary price" for recent rocket launches, its foreign minister told Reuters on Friday, adding the goal was to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.
Wang Yi also said he was concerned by a possible US deployment of its sophisticated THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile defence system to South Korea, saying it could also be used to target China.
North Korea has been under UN sanctions since its first nuclear test in 2006. It has conducted three more atomic tests since then, including last month's, and numerous ballistic missile launches.
Washington and Beijing have appeared divided over how to respond to North Korea, with Washington urging tougher sanctions and Beijing stressing the need for dialogue.
However, Wang told Reuters at an interview in Munich that it was time for a "strong" resolution covering a wide range of areas.
"(We) support the United Nations Security Council to take further steps and in adopting a new resolution so that North Korea will pay the necessary price and show there are consequences for its behaviour," the minister said, speaking through an interpreter.
China has insisted it is already making great efforts to achieve denuclearisation on the "Korean peninsula" and has previously rejected any "groundless speculation" on its North Korea stance, following remarks from US officials that China could do more.
The UN Security Council is discussing a new resolution. Diplomats say the Americans have been pushing for tough measures that go beyond targeting North Korea's atomic weapons and missile programs, while China wanted any future steps to focus on the question of nonproliferation.
When asked whether Beijing was ready to support stronger economic sanctions, Wang said the resolution would be wide-ranging, but its objective should be to curb Pyongyang's efforts to develop nuclear and missile technologies.
"Sanctions are not the end, the purpose should be to make sure that the nuclear issue in the Korean Pensinsula should be brought back to the channel of a negotiation-based resolution," he said.
Tensions have been mounting in the region and on Thursday North Korea said it was evicting all South Koreans from the jointly run Kaesong industrial zone, calling the South's move to suspend operations, in retaliation for Sunday's rocket launch by the North, a "declaration of war".
In response to the launch Seoul is set to begin talks with Washington as early as next week on deploying an advanced US missile defence system.
The discussions would focus on placing one Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) unit with the US military in South Korea after the North's launch last weekend, a South Korean defence official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Wang said he was worried by the move and urged the United States to rethink its strategy.
"The facts are clear. The deployment of the THAAD system by the United States... goes far beyond the defence need of the Korean Pensinsula and the coverage would mean it will reach deep into the Asian continent.
"This directly affects the strategic security interests of China and other Asian countries," he said.
He said Washington needed to clarify its motives.
"It doesn't require experts. Ordinary people know that the deployment of the THAAD system is not just to defend South Korea, but a wider agenda and may even serve the possibility of targeting China."