Adm. Mike Mullen, Joint Chiefs Chairman, on Wednesday called on China to help the US and its allies counter growing security challenges created by North Korea’s aggression. “Now is the time for Beijing to step up . . . and help guide the North, and indeed, the entire region, toward a better future,” he said during a joint news conference in Seoul, South Korea, with Gen. Han Min-goo, South Korean military chairman. Mullen said North Korea’s “relentlessness and reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons . . . destabilizes the entire region.” Late last month, US and South Korean naval forces exercised in the Yellow Sea following North Korea’s unprovoked artillery attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong. The Air Force also dispatched JSTARS ground-surveillance aircraft to the area. (AFPS report by Donna Miles)
Earlier this week, the People’s Republic of China confirmed it is halting its nuclear arms control talks with the U.S., in retaliation for the U.S. continuing to sell arms to Taiwan. The move reinforces a “pattern of behavior” from Beijing, experts say.