China has said that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is serious and “not a computer game” as a ban on travel to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) for US citizens came into force Friday.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the comments at a press briefing as Japan pushed the US for new sanctions against the DPRK.
“It was regrettable that some countries only applied sanctions and overlooked the United Nations Security Council resolution’s requirements for dialogue,” she said.
The statement came as the last Americans left the embattled east Asian nation with the US travel ban taking effect on Friday even as Russia called on Washington not to use force amid heightened tensions following Pyongyang’s latest missile test.
Americans leave Pyongyang
One of the last flights out of Pyongyang on Thursday had a number of Americans on board and was headed for Beijing, according to media reports.
Nicholas Burkhead was among the last American tourists to leave the DPRK, aboard that Air Koryo flight after visiting Pyongyang and Kaesong, a city near the heavily armed border with South Korea.
“I was surprised at how friendly everyone was,” Burkhead was quoted as saying by Reuters. “It was very relaxing — beautiful scenery and they fed us very well in the restaurants there, but the exchange rate wasn’t too good for the local won,” he said.
The flight from the DPRK capital also had on board American aid workers who hoped they would return some day to continue their humanitarian work, reported the Associated Press.
Heidi Linton, director of Christian Friends of Korea, who has been working in DPRK for over two decades, said she worried about the people her aid group helped, if her exemption was not granted soon.
“We started a hepatitis B program and we have 705 patients that have been started on life-saving medicine, that if they go off that medicine then their lives are in danger,” she was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.
The United States in July announced a ban on American citizens from traveling to DPRK, effective September 1. The move has a provision for journalists and aid workers to apply for exemptions from the ban. However, it is not yet clear whether any American has requested, or been granted, such an exemption.
Also, the US state department on Thursday night was unable to give an estimate on the number of Americans still inside the DPRK, Reuters reported.
DPRK state media has described the ban as a “sordid” attempt to limit human exchanges.
Pyongyang is currently holding two Korean-American academics and a missionary, as well as three South Korean nationals who were doing missionary work, according to the New York Post.
This month, the country released a Canadian pastor who had been imprisoned there for more than two years, the Post reported.
A day before the travel ban came into force, the US conducted another round of military drills with allies South Korea and Japan on Thursday, prompting a strong response from Russia and China.
US heavy bombers and stealth jet fighters delivered a show of force directed at the DPRK in a live-fire drill on Thursday, two days after Pyongyang’s test launch of a ballistic missile that flew over Japan, AFP reported.
“Two B-1B ‘Lancer’ bombers from Guam and four F-35B stealth jet fighters from the Marine Corps' Iwakuni airbase in Japan joined four ROK jet fighters and two from Japan in the exercise over Japanese and ROK air space,” the report said quoting US military officials said.
“US and ROK aircraft dropped live munitions onto the Pilseung shooting range in Gangwon province, some 150 kilometres south of the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas,” the report added.
“Counterproductive and dangerous” says Russia
Other global powers and nations in the region have expressed concern over the escalation in tensions between the DPRK and the US and its allies.
Late on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the US against new sanctions, saying such a move could be "counterproductive and dangerous," Fox News reported.
In a phone call with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Lavrov stressed Russia believed imposing more sanctions to pressure Pyongyang to end its missile program was "counterproductive and dangerous," the report said.
Lavrov also "underscored...the need to refrain from any military steps that could have unpredictable consequences," the foreign ministry in Moscow said.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova urged peace talks, saying that "at the moment only Russia and China have put forward a realistic initiative".
"Once again we call all the involved sides to urgently start establishing dialogue without preconditions, based on the proposals on the Russian and Chinese road map," Zakharova said.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the US and its allies against going down a “dead-end road” and called for talks to resolve the issue.
"Russia believes that the policy of putting pressure on Pyongyang to stop its nuclear missile program is misguided and futile," Putin said in an article published ahead of the BRICS summit.
"The region's problems should only be settled through a direct dialogue of all the parties concerned without any preconditions. Provocations, pressure and militarist and insulting rhetoric are a dead-end road," he added.
Spain orders DPRK to reduce embassy staff
In a related development on Thursday, Spain told the DPRK embassy in Madrid to reduce its staff in the country in protest against Pyongyang's repeated missile launches and nuclear weapons tests.
The DPRK's nuclear and ballistic missile programes "create a serious threat to peace in the region and to global security," the Spanish foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The embassy of the DPRK had been warned by the foreign ministry that the continuation of these actions would have consequences on bilateral relations," it added.
"Today the DPRK ambassador has been summoned and the position of the Spanish government has been reiterated and he was informed of the decision to reduce the number of diplomatic staff at his representation in Madrid."
The DPRK embassy, which opened in 2014, is staffed by an ambassador and two diplomats, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said. "One of the two diplomats will have to leave by September 30," she said.
(With inputs from agencies)
