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| ▲ State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel is seen answering questions during a daily press briefing at the department in Washington on Aug. 14, 2023 in this captured image. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
US-China-N Korea
U.S. calls for China's 'constructive' role amid report on suspicious N. Korean ship in Chinese waters
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 (Yonhap) -- China has a "constructive" role to play in curbing North Korea's "destabilizing" activities, the U.S. Department of State said Wednesday, amid a report that a North Korean oil tanker with a record of sanction violations was detected in Chinese waters earlier this week.
Mu Bong 1, an oil tanker, was briefly spotted in waters east of the Chinese Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan on Monday (local time), the Voice of America (VOA) reported, citing information from MarineTraffic, a ship tracking website.
The vessel is known to have engaged in multiple illicit ship-to-ship transfers of sanctioned products in the East China Sea in 2019, the VOA said, citing a report from a U.N. Security Council panel of experts.
"Certainly, if it's a sanctioned vessel, any kind of subversions of sanctions against that would, of course, be concerning, but I'm not aware of this specific scenario," the department's principal deputy spokesperson, Vedant Patel, told a press briefing.
"We've long said that as it relates to the DPRK, we believe that Beijing has and can have a constructive role to play in reining in some of their destabilizing activities, and that continues to be the case," he added.
DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Patel also reiterated that Washington has no hostile intentions toward the North, as Pyongyang continues to argue that it is doubling down on its weapons-related activities due to U.S. hostility.
"We are not in any way harboring any hostilities towards the DPRK," he said. "In fact, when we talk about our ultimate goal of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, we are very clear in the fact that we continue to believe that we're ready to engage with Pyongyang without preconditions."
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