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Chinese President Xi Jinping said no country should be allowed to instigate regional chaos after North Korea's mounting threats to attack the US and South Korea included warnings of pre-emptive nuclear strikes.
"No one should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gains," Xi said on Sunday in a speech at the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan. "While pursuing its own interests, a country should accommodate the legitimate interests of others."
China, North Korea's biggest trading partner, has advocated talks to ease tensions escalated after Kim Jong-un's regime detonated a nuclear device in February in defiance of tightened United Nations sanctions. UN envoy Susan Rice last week said the US is pushing Xi's government to "do more" to rein in its ally. In an effort to reduce strains, the US delayed a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
"While President Xi didn't refer to North Korea, it is fair" to interpret his comments as directed toward the Korean situation, said Fang Xiuyu, a professor of Korean studies at Fudan University. "Xi's remarks are the most decisive comments so far from the Chinese side of the issue."
South Korea's Kospi index fell more than 3 per cent last week and the won dropped about 1.5 per cent as North Korea said it was poised to conduct a "smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike". Kim's regime maintains that joint South Korean-US military drills that go on until the end of April are a rehearsal for a nuclear attack against it.
'Selling climax'
"Last week probably marked a selling climax," said Im Jeong Jae, a Seoul-based fund manager at Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management Co, which oversees about $29 billion. "The Kospi index is likely to stabilise and then try to rebound. There's little chance of North Korea actually taking provocative actions."
The US has decided to postpone a test of a Minuteman III intercontinental missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to avoid exacerbating the situation, according to a Defence Department official who asked not to be identified. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made the decision to re-schedule the test, which will probably be next month, the official said.
China is "seriously concerned" about the rising tensions, and will safeguard the rights and safety of its citizens in North Korea, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement on the ministry's website. The Chinese embassy in Pyongyang is under normal operations, he added.
Missile warning
His statement came after North Korea last week asked countries including Russia and the UK to consider evacuating their embassies from the capital, warning that they can't be protected. North Korea told South Korean companies in the jointly run Gaeseong industrial complex to leave by April 10.
South Korea on Sunday said Kim's regime may fire a missile on or around that date. President Park Geun Hye is ready for any provocation, according to the statement from spokesman Kim Haeng, citing national security chief Kim Jang Soo.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who met Xi on Sunday at the Boao Forum, said China's President told her he shares concerns about North Korea and that the priority is to prevent further escalation. Gillard, speaking at a press briefing, said Xi told her China doesn't want to see conflict and that his aspiration is to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
UN sanctions
While China and the US last month agreed on tougher UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea after its nuclear test, American officials have travelled to Beijing to seek commitment on implementation.
"Clearly, with the border that they have, with the economic relationship that they have, they can do more," Rice said in an April 5 interview with MSNBC.
The Obama administration is seeking "a de-escalation of these tensions," she said, adding the US wants to convey the message that it can defend itself and its allies without "getting too jumpy".
In his speech on Sunday, Xi also said that the right of countries to independently choose their social systems and development paths should be respected and that non-Asian countries should respect Asian diversity. Countries from outside Asia are welcome to play a constructive role in regional stability and development, Xi said.
His admonition against regional disorder "is a tough warning to the Kim regime not to escalate tensions," said Willy Lam, an adjunct professor of history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "I think this warning also has implications for the US and South Korea to cool it a little bit and not to provoke the Kim regime."
