Obama says China turning 'blind eye' to N Korea

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama has called on China to increase its efforts to stop “rewarding bad behaviour” by its close ally North Korea, while warning Pyongyang that sanctions will be stepped up if it goes ahead with a rocket launch next month.

Mr Obama was sharply critical of China’s inactivity on North Korea during a visit to the South Korean capital Seoul for a security summit.

The US leader said Beijing’s policy of “turning a blind eye to deliberate provocations” was not working and he would raise the issue during a meeting with President Hu Jintao today.

“I believe that China is very sincere that it does not want to see North Korea with a nuclear weapon,” he told a news conference before a global summit on nuclear security, which China is also attending, “but it is going to have to act on that interest in a sustained way.”

The president’s comments on China come as he faces criticism in an election year for not doing enough to rein in China’s expansion in Asia and not making better use of its influence in North Korea to halt the nuclear programme.

North Korea is said to be planning a fresh missile test next month, ostensibly to launch a satellite into orbit.

However, the US and its ally, South Korea, believe it is part of North Korea’s nuclear armament programme, which has set the Korean peninsula on edge.

They say the planned launch violates North Korea’s promise to halt long-range missile launches, nuclear tests and uranium enrichment in return for food aid.

“North Korea knows its obligations and it must take irreversible steps to meet those obligations,” Mr Obama said. If the North went ahead with the rocket launch, a February food-aid deal could prove “difficult”.

The launch is scheduled for between April 12th-16th, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of the country’s late president, Kim Il-sung, known as the Great Leader.

There have been signs of warming ties in recent months, including the promise of a resumption of six-party talks on “food aid for disarmament”, which are chaired by China, and also include the two Koreas, the US, Japan and Russia.

During his trip to South Korea, Mr Obama he visited the demilitarised zone, which has cut the peninsula in half since the end of the Korean War in 1953. The conflict ended without a formal truce and nearly 30,000 American troops are still deployed in South Korea.

Mr Obama’s visit coincided with the end of the 100-day mourning period for North Korea’s long-time leader Kim Jong-il, who died of a heart attack in December.

Thousands of people crammed on to Kim Il-sung Square in central Pyongyang to mark the occasion, and his successor, his son Kim Jong-un, bowed before a portrait of his father at the palace where he lies in state.

The North Korean stance is matched by Iran’s continued nuclear developments in the face of sanctions and international criticism, which would also feature in talks in Seoul.