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U.S. tells China to end 'business as usual' with N.Korea (w/video)

 
Published Jan. 8, 2016

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday urged China to end "business as usual" with North Korea after the isolated nation conducted its fourth nuclear test.

Kerry told reporters that he spoke by phone with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. He said that China's approach to North Korea had failed.

Kerry rejected a reporter's suggestion that the Obama administration had neglected the North Korean threat as it focused on curbing Iran's nuclear program. He said there had been constant consultations on North Korea, including on his first trip to China after he became the top U.S. diplomat in 2013.

"Now China had a particular approach that it wanted to make and we agreed and respected to give them the space to be able to implement that, but today in my conversation with the Chinese I made it very clear, that has not worked and we cannot continue business as usual," Kerry said, without elaborating.

The U.N. Security Council has pledged new sanctions against North Korea after its purported hydrogen bomb test on Wednesday.

South Korea is set to start broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda across the border on Friday, believed to be the 33rd birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as part of its retaliation for the North's recent nuclear test.

The broadcasts are certain to draw a furious response from North Korea, which considers them a declaration of war because it is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of the authoritarian leadership of Kim. When South Korea briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts in August after an 11-year break, the two Koreas ended up threatening each other with attacks that brought them to the brink of war.

In the past, the broadcasts typically blared messages about alleged North Korean government mismanagement, human rights conditions, the superiority of South Korean-style democracy as well as world news and weather forecasts.