Obama criticizes China for 'willful blindness' to NK provocation

By Na Jeong-ju

Korea Times correspondent

TORONTO ― U.S. President Barack Obama criticized China, Sunday (local time), for turning a blind eye to North Korea's belligerent behavior, saying Beijing should recognize Pyongyang's torpedo attack on the South Korean Navy ship Cheonan in March.

In blunt comments at the end of the Group of 20 Summit here, Obama said that Chinese President Hu Jintao should recognize that North Korea crossed a line in that incident, in which 46 sailors died.

"I think there's a difference between restraint and willful blindness" by China to the North's military provocation, Obama said, answering questions from reporters.

"Now, I'm sympathetic to the fact that North Korea is on China's border. They have a security interest in not seeing complete chaos on the Korean Peninsula, or a collapse that could end up having a significant impact on them.

"If they adopted a posture of restraint, I understand their thinking. But my hope is that President Hu will recognize that this is an example of Pyongyang going over the line in ways that just have to be spoken about, seriously," he said.

The U.S. President indicated that he would link the Cheonan case to the resumption of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, saying, "We are not going to be able to have serious negotiations with the North Koreans" if China fails to deal resolutely with the incident.

He said the U.S. and other members of the six-party talks share a common interest in that they prefer the case to be resolved diplomatically.

"We'd like to see a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. We'd like to see a North Korea that is a responsible member of the world community, which would be good for the people of North Korea," Obama said.

He went on to say that he wants the U.N. Security Council to produce a "crystal-clear acknowledgment" of the North's attack. The cooperation of China, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council and North Korea's major international supporter, is crucial to that goal.

"It is absolutely critical that the international community rallies behind President Lee Myung-bak and sends a clear message to North Korea that that kind of behavior is unacceptable," Obama said.

Separately, new Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters that an earlier strong condemnation of the North over the weekend by the Group of Eight economies would "have a major bearing" on discussions at the United Nations. Kan said he encouraged Hu during their bilateral summit last week to join world leaders on the matter.

Meanwhile, President Lee held summit talks with President Hu in Toronto Sunday.

At the talks, Lee called for close cooperation between Seoul and Beijing in dealing with North Korea's military provocation, saying the international community should work together to prevent the reclusive country from threatening peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, Cheong Wa Dae said.

Hu reaffirmed Beijing's stance that it disapproves of any act that disrupts peace on the peninsula, but stopped short of directly blaming North Korea for the Cheonan incident.