President Joe Biden will warn Chinese leader Xi Jinping of an expanded U.S. military presence in the region if Beijing doesn’t help rein in North Korean military provocations, according to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One Saturday morning shortly before Biden arrived in Cambodia, Sullivan said North Korea is a threat to the U.S., Japan, South Korea and to “peace and stability across the entire region.”
Biden won’t make any demand of Xi but will share his perspective, Sullivan said.
“If North Korea goes down this road, it will simply mean further enhanced American military and security presence in the region,” Sullivan said. “And so the PRC has an interest in playing a constructive role in restraining North Korea’s worst tendencies; whether they choose to do so or not is of course up to them.”
Biden arrived in Cambodia on Saturday for a series of summits hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. He plans to meet Sunday with the leaders of Japan and South Korea and ask them what they want him to tell Xi, Sullivan said, before meeting the Chinese leader on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali the following day.
Biden and Xi have discussed North Korea many times, Sullivan said, but the nation’s increased military activity has raised the stakes. North Korea has launched more than 60 ballistic missiles so far in 2022, more than double the number of any year during Kim Jong Un’s decade in power.
“The operational situation is more acute in the current moment because of the pace of these missile tests, and because of the looming threat of a potential nuclear test, seventh nuclear test,” he said. “But the president sees this as quite familiar ground that he will be treading with President Xi when they meet in Bali.”
The Biden-Xi meeting was long in the planning, Sullivan said. It’s the first time the two will meet in person since Biden won the presidency.
“The president views this as not the end of the line but rather the start of a series of engagements that will also include further leader-to-leader meetings down the road,” Sullivan said.
China will play “a constructive role” for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the nation’s Premier Li Keqiang said at a meeting with South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol Saturday, Yonhap News reported.
The two leaders briefly spoke to each other on the sidelines of the Asean Plus Three summit in Cambodia, Yonhap said, citing an unidentified official at Korea’s presidential office. Li’s remark came after Yoon expressed his concerns over the recent actions by North Korea, the report said.
