N. Korea calls Blinken's visit to China 'disgraceful begging trip'

North Korea on Wednesday called US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's latest visit to China a "disgraceful begging trip," claiming it demonstrated the US failure in its policy of putting pressure on Beijing.

Jong Yong-hak, an analyst on international affairs, said Blinken flew to China to "beg for the relaxation" of worsened bilateral ties, as its pressure policy on China dealt a fatal blow to the US economy and a China-US confrontation could trigger an unprecedented military conflict.

"It is the height of the double-dealing and impudence peculiar to the US to provoke first and then talk about the so-called 'responsible control over divergence of opinion,'" Jong said in an English-language article carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

The analyst claimed Blinken's recent visit was nothing but "a disgraceful begging trip of the provoker admitting the failure of the policy of putting pressure on China."

During Blinken's trip on Sunday and Monday, the first to China by a US secretary of state in five years, Washington and Beijing agreed to stabilize their relations amid an intensified rivalry between the two, although they failed to produce a major breakthrough.

Blinken called on China to use its influence on Pyongyang to stop the secretive regime from making further provocations, he told reporters Monday, amid concerns that the North may soon launch a space rocket carrying a military spy satellite after a failed launch in May. (Yonhap)