China hoped to press N. Korea to cooperate

The country provides significant aid to Kim Jong Il's government.
BEIJING (AP) -- South Korea's foreign minister urged China to use its influence to dissuade North Korea from testing a long-range missile, but Western diplomats on Tuesday questioned Beijing's influence over the reclusive communist state.
South Korea's Ban Ki-moon and Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing met for about an hour, discussing strategies to sway Pyongyang not to test-launch a missile and to resume six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons program.
"We should focus efforts on dissuading North Korea from test-firing a missile," Li said.
Ban urged China to persuade North Korea not to test the missile, the South's Yonhap news agency reported, citing South Korea Foreign Ministry official Lee Hyuck, who attended Tuesday's talks.
Recent intelligence reports have said North Korea may be fueling a Taepodong-2, one of its most advanced missiles, at a launch site on the country's northeastern coast. A U.S. government estimate puts the range of the Taepodong-2 missile at between 5,000 and 7,500 miles, making it capable of reaching the United States.
President Bush has said a test launch by North Korea would be considered "provocative," and he urged the nation to heed warnings by China and others not to conduct the test.
U.S.-China relations
The flagship of the U.S. Navy's Pacific fleet arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday for a visit that reflects warming ties between the American and Chinese militaries. Although the visit of the USS Blue Ridge was planned long before reports about North Korea's apparent missile test, Capt. Jeffrey S. Bartkoski said it showed the "importance of regional cooperation" to promote "peace and security."
China, a key provider of aid to impoverished North Korea, is believed to be the only country that has considerable leverage with the hard-line regime of Kim Jong Il. But since the crisis over North Korea's nuclear programs emerged in late 2002, China has largely refrained from threats to halt the fuel and food deliveries and bank credits that sustain its neighbor.
Meanwhile, North Korea said Tuesday the United States was to blame for a "new nuclear arms race."
"The U.S. is the principal criminal of the present nuclear arms race, the very one who harasses world peace and security," the North's main newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary, according to the official Korea Central News Agency.
"The U.S. should give up its wild ambition for nukes, mindful that its nuke modernization and space militarization will be a grave crime of disturbing world peace and security."
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