China would back a unified Korea if attained through peace, ambassador says

Oren Dorell | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Ambassador: China doesn’t seek world domination Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the United States, talks about U.S.-China relations, solar tariffs, synthetic opioids and North Korea with Editorial Page Editor Bill Sternberg.

China is open to a reunified Korean Peninsula — even if it is aligned with the West — as long as it is peaceful and does not threaten national security, China’s ambassador to Washington told USA TODAY's editorial board Tuesday.

Ambassador Cui Tiankai commented as North and South Korea this month began talking to each other, reducing tensions inflamed by an increased tempo of the North's nuclear and missile tests, and by President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's trading threats and insults.

Cui said China would support reunification if it is the will of the Korean people. “As long as it's peaceful, it’s independent (and) by the Korean people, China will support it,” he said.

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Even a Western-aligned Korean Peninsula?

“I think it’s up to the Korean people, whether they are divided or unified, to adopt an independent foreign policy of their own,” Cui replied. “They know where their best interests lie.”

Cui described China’s principles for resolving the conflict on the Korean Peninsula, which has been divided since the end of World War II and where Chinese and U.S. troops fought on opposite sides during the Korean War that ended in 1953.

China wants a denuclearization of the entire Korean Peninsula, no armed conflict or chaos on its borders, and for any reunification to happen through diplomacy, Cui said.

On Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. would back such an outcome.

“We support – if it arrives at that peacefully – we support reunification of the Korean peninsula,” Nauert told USA TODAY.

North Korea, which agreed this month to send a delegation of athletes, performers and officials to the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, has said it is developing a nuclear weapon that can reach Washington, D.C., in order to deter an American threat. China, which handles 80% to 90% of the North’s trade, has signed on to numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions intended to limit the flow of goods and funds to the nation’s illicit weapons programs.

“Whenever we find any company or individual violating these sanctions, we will take legal action against them,” Cui said.

The U.S. and its allies during the Korean War are considering increasing maritime interdiction of ships going to and from North Korea after the U.S. in December, sought unsuccessfully to blacklist 10 ships it said were involved in transferring oil and coal to the North on the high seas, in violation of U.N. sanctions.

The Treasury Department published photographs of ships apparently transferring oil to North Korean tankers in the Yellow Sea between China and South Korea. One of the ships, Lighthouse Winmore, which South Korean authorities seized in November, had a Chinese crew, was owned by a company based in Hong Kong whose director lives in Guangzhou, China, was leased by someone in Taiwan, and was registered in the Marshall Islands, a U.S. protectorate, according to The New York Times.

Cui denied China has anything to do with those ships.

“We have done our own investigation. I don’t think that these ships carry the Chinese flag," Cui said. "In other words, these ships do not belong to China. But as long as such activities are taking place in the areas under our jurisdictions we’ll take action against them.”

The Trump administration listed China and Russia as global rivals in its national security strategy last month, but Cui disagreed.

“China has no interest in seeking world domination,” he said. “I don’t think any country can really dominate the world. We need the cooperation of all the members of the international community.”