China's U.N. envoy said on Thursday that Beijing does not want to see North Korea carry out a new nuclear test, which is partly why China vetoed a U.S.-led bid to impose new U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang over renewed ballistic missiles launches.
But Ambassador Zhang Jun warned against making presumptions on how Beijing might react at the United Nations if North Korea goes ahead with its first nuclear test since 2017. Washington has warned such a test could happen at "any time" and it would again push for more U.N. sanctions.
"Let's see what will happen, but I think we should not prejudge what will happen with a nuclear test," Zhang told Reuters, two weeks after China and Russia vetoed imposing more U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea.
"The denuclearization is one of the key goals of China," Zhang said. "We do not want to see another test."
The double veto publicly split the 15-member Security Council for the first time since it started punishing Pyongyang in 2006. The body has steadily - and unanimously - ratcheted up sanctions over the years in a bid to cut off funding for North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
Reuters
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