N. Korea a major area of cooperation between US, China: NSA Sullivan

WASHINGTON -- North Korea is one of key areas where the United States and China can and should work together, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tuesday.

Sullivan also reiterated US commitment to dialogue with the reclusive North.

"Of course, we have seen a series of tests by North Korea. The United States has indicate we are prepared to engage in good faith and diplomacy if North Korea is prepared to do the same," he said, referring to recent missile tests by the North that included the test launch of a self-claimed hypersonic glide vehicle.

"So coordination around that issue is also very important," added Sullivan.

The top US security advisor was speaking in a webinar on the outcome of US President Joe Biden's virtual summit with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, held the previous day.

"They exchanged views on key regional challenges including North Korea, Iran and Afghanistan," the White House official said of the summit in the webinar hosted by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.

Washington has consistently called on Beijing to do more to bring North Korea back to the dialogue table.

"They (Chinese) have influence and they should use that influence to help steer North Korea towards a diplomatic solution to this and the denuclearization of the peninsula, which, one has to assume, is also in China's interest as well," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said earlier.

China, on the other hand, is widely viewed to be lenient toward its communist neighbor, often failing to implement UN Security Council sanctions on North Korea.

China, together with Russia, circulated a draft resolution at the UN Security Council earlier this month, calling for a reduction of sanctions on the North.

Sullivan said the US president went into Monday's virtual summit from a position of strength, partly reinforced by the US' strong relationships with its key allies and partners, including South Korea.

"He has strengthened our alliances with the Republic of Korea and Japan, so that they are as strong as they have been in the history of those two alliances. That's the context for the meeting last night that is the strategic environment into which President Biden walked," he said, referring to South Korea by its official name. (Yonhap)