A Chinese state-run newspaper blamed South Korea and the United States on Thursday for the recent failure by the United Nations Security Council to issue a statement denouncing Pyongyang's missile provocations.



On Wednesday, foreign media reports said that China's push to include its opposition to the Terminal High-Altitude Areas Defense (THAAD) system to be placed here by end-2017 ended up blocking the UNSC's efforts to issue a statement condemning the North's' latest missile launches.



In a story carried in its Thursday edition, the Global Times, a daily Chinese newspaper under the wing of the People's Daily, said that THAAD has broken the UNSC's united front against the North's nuclear and missile provocations.



It argued that the UNSC tried to issue a statement with regard to the North's missile launches on Aug. 3 but discord between China and the United States over the planned THAAD deployment on the Korean Peninsula eventually hampered the move.



The newspaper also said that the joint decision by Seoul and Washington to place THAAD would come as a new challenge for the Northeast Asian region and that the global coordination that has been formed against the nuclear threat from the North is crumbling.



It went on, saying that China's participation in global efforts to resolve the North's nuclear issue has caused a loss in its ties with Pyongyang, adding that it would be a stab in the back if they go ahead with the plan to place THAAD, which poses a direct threat to its security.



For South Korea, it worried that its clash with China over THAAD could generate yet another source of conflict in the region, urging Seoul to avoid stepping into the difficult position between China and the United States. (Yonhap)



