China warns US, S Korea against ‘stirring tensions’ with Pyongyang

China has warned the US and South Korea against “stirring up tensions” and “provoking confrontation” with the North following Washington’s decision to deploy nuclear submarines to Seoul to purportedly protect it against Pyongyang.

Beijing on Thursday strongly reacted to the US decision to send nuclear armed submarines to South Korea by warning both Washington and Seoul against “provoking confrontation” with Pyongyang, Seoul’s arch-foe.

“All parties should face up to the crux of the (Korean) peninsula issue and play a constructive role in promoting a peaceful settlement of the issue,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Mao Ning at a press conference.

She further warned the US and South Korea against “deliberately stirring up tensions, provoking confrontation and playing up threats.”

Mao also lambasted the so-called Washington Declaration pact with Seoul, insisting that the US “ignores regional security and insists on exploiting the peninsula issue to create tension.”

“What the US is doing … provokes confrontation between camps, undermines the nuclear non-proliferation regime and the strategic interests of other countries,” she stressed, warning that US moves “aggravate tensions on the peninsula, undermine regional peace and stability, and run counter to the goal of denuclearization on the peninsula.”

According to the military agreement signed between the American and South Korean presidents on Wednesday, Washington threatened to “end” the government of North Korea led by Kim Jong-un if Pyongyang wages a nuclear attack against Seoul.