The US principal military advisor to the president, General Joseph Dunford, has arrived in Beijing amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff arrived after concluding his visit to South Korea on Monday. He is also expected to visit Japan over the next few days.
Concerns that the DPRK is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland United States within range of a nuclear weapon has underpinned a spike in tensions in recent months. President Trump took to Twitter over the weekend to warn DPRK leader Kim Jong Un that US military solutions are now fully in place.
That message is also being reiterated by General Dunford, who is seeking to reaffirm the strong US alliance with South Korea.
“I’m on the way to China… I would not think of coming to the region without coming to see our close friends and allies here in the Republic of Korea.”
In response to the DPRK’s plan to launch missiles at the US territory of Guam, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said there should be no more war on the Korean peninsula and urged to resolve the nuclear situation in peace.
Many in the international community are calling for calm, despite Trump speaking of military options. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a peaceful resolution in a telephone call with Trump, urging all sides to avoid words or actions that could raise tensions.
The White House said in a statement that the relationship between the two presidents of China and the US is “an extremely close one”, and will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the Peninsula problem.
The trip to Beijing is Dunford’s first visit to China as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and he will be hosted by his Chinese counterpart, General Fang Fenghui, chief of the Joint Staff Department.
“The visit underscores US interest in further developing military-to-military relationships between the United States and China,” the chairman’s office said in a statement. (enpeople)