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China paper says U.S., South Korea will ‘pay the price’ for planned missile system

BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States and South Korea are destined to “pay the price” for their decision to deploy an advanced missile defense system which will inevitably prompt a “counter attack”, China’s top newspaper said on Saturday.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has been high this year, beginning with North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January, which was followed by a satellite launch, a string of tests of various missiles, and its fifth and largest nuclear test last month.

In July, South Korea agreed with the United States to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system to protect against any North Korean threats.

South Korea aims to deploy the system on a golf course, a defense ministry official said on Friday.

But the plan has angered China, which worries that THAAD’s powerful radar would compromise its security and do nothing to lower temperatures on the Korean peninsula.

In a commentary, the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said China’s opposition to THAAD would never change as it was a serious threat to the regional strategic security balance.

“Like any other country, China can neither be vague nor indifferent on security matters that affect its core interests,” the newspaper said in the commentary, published under the pen name “Zhong Sheng”, meaning “Voice of China”, often used to give views on foreign policy.

The United States and South Korea have to wake up to the fact that the Korean peninsula is no place to take risks, it added.

“If the United States and South Korea harm the strategic security interests of countries in the region including China, then they are destined to pay the price for this and receive a proper counter attack,” the paper added, without elaborating.

NO DETAILS YET

China has repeatedly promised to take specific steps to respond since the THAAD decision was announced, but has given no details about what it may do.

The United States and South Korea have said THAAD does not threaten China’s security or target any country other than North Korea.

China is North Korea’s most important diplomatic and economic partner, but Beijing has been infuriated by its nuclear and missile tests and has signed up for strong United Nations sanctions against North Korea.

However, China has continued to call for talks to resolve the North Korean issue and said sanctions are not the ultimate solution.

At a reception in Pyongyang on Friday for China’s National Day, Chinese Ambassador Li Jinjun said his country wanted to consolidate its friendship with North Korea, China’s Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

The report made no mention of the nuclear issue.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

Rescuers pull 15 out from China landslide, 32 missing

A rescue worker is seen next to an overturned car at the site of a landslide caused by heavy rains brought by Typhoon Megi, in Sucun Village, Lishui

BEIJING, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Rescuers have pulled 15 people alive from a landslide that slammed into a village in China’s eastern Zhejiang province after a typhoon but 32 people are still missing, state media said on Thursday.

Heavy rains brought by the remnants of Typhoon Megi caused the landslide to crash into Sucun village on Wednesday.

The microblog of official provincial news portal Zhejiang Online showed pictures of survivors being carried out on the backs of rescuers, while others dug through rubble to locate survivors.

It gave no details of those still missing other than to say one was an official who had been in the village to organise evacuations.

A mass of debris rolled down a lush mountain towards the small village, according to images posted on Zhejiang Online.

Mountainous Zhejiang, along with its neighbouring provinces, are frequently hit by typhoons at this time of year and are also highly susceptible to landslides.

Megi had already killed four people and injured more than 523 in Taiwan since it had roared in from the Pacific Ocean.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul Tait)

China armed forces warn Japan against South China sea patrols

BEIJING, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Japan is “playing with fire” with plans to step up activity in the contested South China Sea through joint training patrols with the United States, China’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday, warning it would not sit watching from the sidelines.

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea and has repeatedly denounced what it views as interference there by the United States and its ally, Japan.

Japan is strengthening its ties in the region, in particular with the Philippines and Vietnam, which contest China’s claims to parts of the sea, and it aims to help build the capacity of coastal states in the busy waterway, its defence minister said this month during a visit to Washington.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun, asked about Japan’s plans, said it had constantly been trying to stir things up in the South China Sea for its own purposes.

“We must solemnly tell Japan this is a miscalculation. If Japan wants to have joint patrols or drills in waters under Chinese jurisdiction this really is playing with fire,” Yang told a monthly news briefing.

“China’s military will not sit idly by,” he added, without elaborating.

Ties between Asia’s two largest economies have long been overshadowed by arguments over their painful wartime history and a territorial spat in the East China Sea, among other issues.

Ships carrying about $5 trillion in trade pass through the South China Sea every year.

Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also have claims in the sea, which is also believed to be rich in energy resources and fish stocks.

In July, an arbitration court in the Hague said China’s claims to the waterway were invalid, after a case was brought by the Philippines. China has refused to recognise the ruling.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)

China upset as U.S. sanctions firm tied to North Korea nuclear program

A North Korean flag flies on a mast at the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva

BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Tuesday it was opposed to any country using its own laws to carry out “long arm jurisdiction”, after the United States sanctioned a Chinese industrial machinery wholesaler tied to North Korea’s nuclear program.

The U.S. Treasury said it was sanctioning Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co and four of its executives, including the firm’s founder, Ma Xiaohong, under U.S. regulations targeting proliferators of weapons of mass destruction.

It accused the firm of acting on behalf of North Korea’s Korea Kwangson Banking Corp (KKBC), which has been under U.S. and U.N. sanctions for supporting proliferation of such weapons.

The U.S. Department of Justice said it had filed criminal charges against the Chinese firm and the executives for using front companies to evade sanctions on North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Asked about the move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China was committed to upholding United Nations resolutions against North Korea, which mandate tough sanctions for its nuclear and missile tests.

Any person or company found in breach of the rules will be punished, and if necessary China will cooperate with other countries on this on the basis of mutual respect and equality, Geng told a daily news briefing.

“I want to stress that we oppose any country enacting so-called long arm jurisdiction, using its own domestic laws against a Chinese entity or individual,” he added.

“We have already communicated this position to the U.S. side,” Geng said, without elaborating.

While China is North Korea’s sole major ally, it disapproves of its nuclear and missile programs and was angered by its latest nuclear test.

Beijing has said it will work within the United Nations to formulate a necessary response, but questions remain as to whether it is willing to agree tough enough steps to force North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons.

On Monday, U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump said China should “go into North Korea” to stop its nuclear plans as China has all the power in the relationship.

Chinese spokesman Geng said the crux of the North Korea issue was not China, and that China has made great efforts to try and bring about the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Discussions are under way on a possible new U.N. sanctions resolution and the senior U.S. diplomat for Asia said on Friday he was confident an agreement would be reached before long, imposing further sanctions and tightening existing ones.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

U.S. bombers fly over South Korea for second time since North’s nuclear test

By Yoo Han-bin

OSAN, South Korea (Reuters) – Two U.S. supersonic bombers flew over South Korea on Wednesday, with one of them landing at an air base 40 km (25 miles) south of the capital, the second such flight since North Korea’s Sept. 9 nuclear test.

U.S. Forces Korea said the flight by a pair of B-1B Lancer strategic bombers based in Guam was a show of force and of U.S. commitment to preserve the security of the peninsula and the region.

The United States, which has about 28,500 troops in South Korea, flew two B-1 bombers on Sept. 13 escorted by U.S. and South Korean fighter jets in a show of solidarity with Seoul.

The North condemned the earlier flight as an armed provocation that mobilized “ill-famed nuclear killing tools”. It did not immediately respond to Wednesday’s flight.

The U.S. Air Force said the Wednesday flight was the closest ever to North Korea by a B-1 bomber.

“Today marks the first time the airframe has landed on the Korean peninsula in 20 years, as well as conducting the closest flight near North Korea ever,” the U.S. Air Force said on its website which also showed a B-1B bomber landing at the base in South Korea.

The South’s Yonhap news agency said the aircraft flew over a U.S. live-fire training site in the Pocheon area bordering the North.

North Korea has ignored global condemnation of its fifth nuclear test on Sept. 9, and this week said it had successfully tested a new rocket engine that would be used to launch satellites, again in violation of U.N. sanctions.

The leaders of the United States and China, which is the North’s main diplomatic ally and economic benefactor, condemned the latest nuclear test and pledged to step up cooperation at the United Nations and in law enforcement channels.

CHINA URGES RESTRAINT

U.N. diplomats say the two countries have begun discussions on a possible U.N. resolution in response to the latest nuclear test, but China has not said directly whether it would support tougher steps against North Korea.

China, which has objected to a planned U.S. deployment of a THAAD missile defense system in the South to counter the North’s missile threat, called on “all parties to exercise restraint and to avoid any actions that could further escalate tensions”.

South Korea’s prime minister, Hwang Kyo-ahn, told parliament South Korea wanted existing U.N. sanctions against the North tightened by removing loopholes that allow it to trade in minerals if it is for subsistence.

North Korea has been testing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles at an unprecedented rate this year, beginning with its fourth nuclear test in January and including the launch of a satellite in February that was widely seen as a test of long-range ballistic missile technology.

The North’s test of a new rocket engine for satellite launchers this week was believed to be part of a long-range missile program, according to the South’s military.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, ordered preparations for the launch of a satellite “as soon as possible” on the basis of the successful test, its state media reported.

North Korea this month fired three missiles that flew about 1,000 km (600 miles), and in August tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile that experts said showed considerable progress.

It also launched an intermediate-range missile in June that experts said marked a technological advance for the isolated state after several failed tests.

South Korean Defence Minister Han Min-koo told parliament the North was developing all types of missiles, from short- to long-range, and its advances were “considerable”.

(Refiles to clarify the flight was the closest to border by a B-1 bomber in paragraph five)

(Additional reporting by James Pearson in Seoul and Michael Martina in Beijing; Writing by Ju-min Park, Jack Kim; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel)

China threatens countermeasures after Dalai Lama speaks at EU Parliment

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (L), is welcomed by European Parliament president Martin Schulz at his arrival at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France,

BEIJING (Reuters) – China expressed anger on Monday and threatened countermeasures after exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama spoke at the European Parliament in the French city of Strasbourg and met its president, Martin Schulz.

China regards the 80-year-old, Nobel Peace Prize-winning monk as a separatist, though he says he merely seeks genuine autonomy for his Himalayan homeland, which Communist Chinese troops “peacefully liberated” in 1950.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the European Parliament and Schultz had ignored China’s “strong opposition” about meeting the Dalai Lama, which ran contrary to the European Union’s promises to China on the issue of Tibet.

“China is resolutely opposed to the mistaken actions of the European Parliament,” Lu told a daily news briefing, adding that its leaders’ insistence on taking an erroneous position had damaged China’s core interests.

“China absolutely cannot remain indifferent, and we will make the correct choice in accordance with our judgment of the situation,” he added, without elaborating on what China may do.

Few foreign leaders are willing to meet the Dalai Lama these days, fearful of provoking a strong reaction from China, the world’s second-largest economy.

Last week, Beijing warned Taiwan not to allow the Dalai Lama to visit, after a high-profile Taiwan legislator invited him to the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.

Tibet’s spiritual leader told the European Parliament last week he hoped the Tibetan issue would be resolved but urged the outside world and the European Union in particular not to hold back from criticizing Beijing.

The Dalai Lama, who also met the European Parliament’s foreign affairs chairman, Elmar Brok, fled to India in 1959 following a failed uprising against the Chinese.

Rights groups and exiles accuse China of trampling on the religious and cultural rights of the Tibetan people, charges strongly denied by Beijing, which says its rule has brought prosperity to a once backward region.

(Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Clarence Fernandez)

Between reckless ally and old rival, China in a bind over North Korea

A general view shows the unfinished New Yalu River bridge that was designed to connect China's Dandong New Zone, Liaoning province, and North Korea's Sinuiju.

By Benjamin Kang Lim and Michelle Nichols

BEIJING/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – China is in a bind over what to do about North Korea’s stepped-up nuclear and missile tests, even though it is annoyed with its ally and has started talks with other U.N. Security Council members on a new sanctions resolution against Pyongyang.

China shares a long land border with North Korea and is seen as the only country with real power to bring about change in the isolated and belligerent nation. However, Beijing fears strengthening sanctions could lead to collapse in North Korea, and it also believes the United States and its ally South Korea share responsibility for growing tensions in the region.

China is in a difficult spot, a source close to the Chinese leadership told Reuters when asked if Beijing’s attitude to North Korea had changed after its fifth nuclear test last week.

“On the one hand, China is resolutely opposed to North Korea developing nuclear weapons for fear of triggering a nuclear arms race in the region,” the source said, referring to Japan and South Korea following in Pyongyang’s footsteps.

“On the other hand, North Korea is a big headache but regime change is not an option,” the source added. “Collapse of the regime would lead to chaos in (China’s) northeast” bordering North Korea, the source said, requesting anonymity.

The prospect of a unified Korea under Seoul’s leadership and the possibility of U.S. troops on China’s borders has long been a nightmare for Beijing.

A collapse in North Korea, sending a flood of refugees across the relatively porous border into China’s rustbelt northeastern provinces, would also be deeply destabilizing to Beijing’s rule as well as a huge economic cost.

Those concerns have been around for years, but now Beijing is also deeply angered by a U.S. decision to deploy an advanced anti-missile system in South Korea, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. It has said its own security has been compromised and that North Korea’s recent belligerence is due to this deployment.

Publicly, China has not linked the THAAD deployment with whether it will support sanctions on North Korea. It condemned the latest missile and nuclear tests but said sanctions alone could not resolve the issue and has called for a resumption of talks with Pyongyang.

Beijing has also said it will work within the United Nations to formulate a necessary response to its fifth nuclear test.

“We’re in negotiations on a U.N. Security Council resolution,” Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday.

Diplomats said the talks were at an early stage and negotiations were likely to be long and tough.

IRRITATION AND CONSENSUS

One senior U.N. diplomat said Beijing made displeasure with Pyongyang clear at an earlier Security Council meeting called after North Korea tested three medium range missiles at an embarrassing time – when U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders were gathered for the G20 summit in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou this month.

“The tone of the whole discussion was much more consensual, it didn’t feel like there was two camps fighting arguing with each other,” said the diplomat. “Of course there continue to be different views about sanctions.”

The United States has called on Beijing to use its influence to get North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions, and to close sanctions “loopholes”, since the existing ones had done little to prevent Pyongyang from pursuing its nuclear and missile programs.

Shen Wenhui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told influential state-run newspaper the Global Times last week that crippling sanctions would cause a “humanitarian disaster” in North Korea.

“In putting sanctions on North Korea, the international community must reduce the effect on ordinary people to the greatest possible extent,” Shen wrote.

China’s concerns also include the larger issue of what Beijing sees as Washington’s attempts to surround it under Obama’s strategic “rebalance” towards Asia. Besides THAAD, the dispute in the South China Sea, cybersecurity and human rights have marred ties between the world’s two biggest economies.

Chinese officials also say that the West over-estimates its influence with North Korea.

“I think any idea to ask North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons would fail, and any idea to ask South Korea to abandon THAAD would fail,” said Shen Dingli, a professor at Shanghai’s elite Fudan University and director of the school’s Program on Arms Control and Regional Security.

North Korea is useful for China, Shen added. “China needs North Korea to counter the United States.”

In Seoul, some are already accepting that China will not do much more to punish North Korea.

“The sanctions that North Korea will not be able to endure will be all blocked by China even without being asked by the North,” Chun Yung-woo, a former South Korean national security adviser, told Reuters. “So the North is hiding behind that and comfortably pursuing the nuclear programmer’s.”

(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing, James Pearson, Jack Kim and Ju-min Park in Seoul and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Typhoon kills at least 11 in China and Taiwan, another storm on the way

A car is seen under toppled trees after Typhoon Meranti swept through Xiamen, Fujian province, China,

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The world’s strongest storm this year killed at last 10 people in China when it hit the southeast coast, the government said on Friday, as rescuers scoured flooded streets and work crews struggled to restore power to more than a million homes.

Typhoon Meranti had largely dissipated by Friday afternoon, a day after it swept in from the Pacific Ocean, clipping the southern tip of Taiwan, and making landfall near the Chinese port city of Xiamen, in Fujian province.

The storm killed seven people in Fujian and three in neighboring Zhejiang province, state media and the government said. Eleven people were missing.

More than 330,000 people were returning to their homes on Friday after being forced to flee a storm that meteorologists said was the world’s biggest this year.

The typhoon killed one person and injured 38 on Taiwan where people were on Friday preparing for another, Typhoon Malakas, which was forecast to bring heavy rain on Saturday.

Streets are seen flooded after Typhoon Meranti made landfall on southeastern China, in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China, September 15, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer

The Taiwan weather bureau issued land and sea warnings, urging people to be on alert for severe weather and flooding.

Meranti was the strongest typhoon to hit that part of China’s coast since 1949, the Xinhua state news agency said.

Pictures on state media showed flooded streets, fallen trees and crushed cars in Xiamen.

Three power transmission towers were blown down in the city and utility crews were trying to restore power. Across Fujian, 1.65 million homes had no electricity, Xinhua reported.

Dozens of flights and train services were canceled on Thursday, disrupting travel at the beginning of a three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

Typhoons are common at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross the warm waters of the Pacific and bringing fierce winds and rain when they hit land.

(Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Top diplomats from U.S., Japan, South Korea to meet on North Korea

Ryoo Yong-gyu, Earthquake and Volcano Monitoring Division Director, points at where seismic waves observed in South Korea came from, during a media briefing at Korea Meteorological Administration in Seoul

By Tony Munroe and Ben Blanchard

SEOUL/BEIJING, Sept 14 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in New York on Sunday to discuss responses to North Korea’s latest nuclear test, South Korea’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

The three countries are pushing for tough new U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea after the isolated country on Friday conducted its fifth and largest nuclear test.

The blast was in defiance of U.N. sanctions that were tightened in March.

China, the North’s chief ally, backed the March resolution but is more resistant to harsh new sanctions this time after the United States and South Korea decided to deploy a sophisticated anti-missile system in the South, which China adamantly opposes.

South Korea said Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his counterparts Kerry and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will meet during the annual U.N. General Assembly to discuss putting further pressure on North Korea.

The United States wants China to do more, with U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter last week singling out the role he said China should play in curbing its neighbor.

TESTING TIMES

North Korea has been testing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles at an unprecedented rate this year under young leader Kim Jong Un.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with South Korea’s Yun by phone, expressing Beijing’s opposition to the North’s latest nuclear test but also reiterating opposition to the planned deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THADD) anti-missile system in the South, China’s foreign ministry said.

China is North Korea’s most important diplomatic and trade partner and refuses to cut the country off completely, fearing it could collapse.

Beijing’s official People’s Daily newspaper on Wednesday called the United States a troublemaker and said it has no right to lecture China about taking responsibility for reining in North Korea as tensions on the peninsula are a direct result of U.S. actions.

In a commentary, the ruling Communist Party’s official paper said the United States was pretending it had nothing to do with the North Korea issue and was putting the blame on others.

“People have reason to doubt whether Washington is willing to make the effort to push the North Korea issue in the direction of a resolution,” the paper said.

China and Russia have pushed for a resumption of six party talks on denuclearization in North Korea. The talks, which also involve Japan, South Korea and the United States, have been on hold since 2008.

Washington has said it is willing to negotiate with the North if it the country commits to denuclearization, which Pyongyang has refused to do.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will seek Cuba’s help in responding to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs during a rare visit to Havana next week, a spokesman said.

Typhoon cuts power, lashes China with wind and rain before weakening

People wading through flooded street after Typhoon Meranti

BEIJING (Reuters) – Typhoon Meranti slammed into southeastern China on Thursday with strong winds and lashing rain that cut power to 1.65 million homes, but there were no reports of more casualties in what has been described as the strongest storm of the year globally.

The storm, registered as a super typhoon before losing strength after sweeping across southern Taiwan, made landfall in the early hours near the major city of Xiamen.

Dozens of flights and train services have been canceled, state television said, disrupting travel at the start of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

Pictures on state media showed flooded streets, fallen trees and crushed cars in Xiamen as rescuers in boats evacuated people.

About 320,000 homes were without power in Xiamen. Across the whole of Fujian province, where Xiamen is located, 1.65 million homes had no electricity, state television said.

Large sections of Xiamen also suffered water supply disruptions and some windows in tall buildings shattered, sending glass showering onto the ground below, state news agency Xinhua said.

The report said it was the strongest typhoon to hit that part of the country since the founding of Communist China in 1949 and the strongest so far this year anywhere in the world.

Tens of thousands of people had already been evacuated as the storm approached and fishing boats called back to port.

One person died and 38 were injured in Taiwan, the Central Emergency Operation Centre there said, as the typhoon hit the southern part of the island on Wednesday.

Meranti was a Category 5 typhoon, the strongest classification awarded by Tropical Storm Risk storm tracker, before it made landfall on the mainland and has since been downgraded to Category 2.

Typhoons are common at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross the warm waters of the Pacific and bringing fierce winds and rain when they hit land.

Meranti will continue to lose strength as it pushes inland and up toward China’s commercial capital of Shanghai, but will bring heavy rain.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Faith Hung in TAIPEI; Editing by Nick Macfie and Paul Tait)

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