Is China to blame for the North Korea crisis? The answer depends on who you ask

The feud over how North Korea should be handled is an indication of the struggles between Washington and Beijing to communicate on an even level

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What’s in a handshake: President Xi Jinping, right, and US President Donald Trump in Beijing in November. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:00am, 8 Jan 2018Updated: 10:45am, 8 Jan 2018

In the final week of 2017, US President Donald Trump made crystal clear what his approach to China would be in the new year.

First, he tweeted that China was caught “red handed” allowing ships to sell oil to North Korea in the Yellow Sea – in violation of Beijing’s own approval of UN resolution banning such activities.

Then, in a television interview, he said he would honour his campaign promise to punish China on trade, indicating that he believed a quid pro quo was in place over North Korea with President Xi Jinping when the two met in Mar-a-Lago a year prior. According to Trump’s one-sided account, China had agreed to rein in Pyongyang in exchange for amicable American policies on trade. Based on this, Trump implied, Washington entered the new year with the moral high ground in its interactions with Beijing.

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China gave a stout response to Trump’s accusatory tweets – although it was largely ignored by the international media. The Foreign Ministry’s account stated that the ship in question operated outside of China’s jurisdiction after August 2017 and uploaded oil in another country before heading to waters close to North Korea. The UN resolution that banned unauthorised oil shipments was passed on December 22 – hence, China should not be held responsible.

The Chinese reply was met by silence – a possible sign that the tweet-happy US president was conceding the point.

As a reliable ally of the US, the South Korean government should have mounted a tremendous effort to help clear the air. But, at least in the mainstream English-language media, Seoul has chosen to remain silent over the Beijing-Washington feud.

The dispute over the alleged oil sales – and how North Korea should be handled in general – is an indication of the struggles between Washington and Beijing to communicate on an even level.

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The recent escalation of the dispute over North Korea can be traced back to the Mar-a-Lago meeting.