China Suspends Flights to North Korea Amid Fears of Nuke Test

The ruling Chinese Communist Party is suspending flights in and out of the North Korean capital Pyongyang by its state-run flag-carrier Air China, the only foreign airline that currently flies there, following warnings that rising tensions could soon escalate into war.

“Air China flights between Beijing and Pyongyang will be suspended from Monday,” state broadcaster CCTV said on its official social media account on Friday.

The move, ostensibly owing to a “shortage of passengers,” followed warnings from China’s foreign minister that tensions might reach an “irreversible and unmanageable stage” after the U.S. deployed an aircraft carrier group to the region amid fears the isolated Stalinist state may conduct a sixth nuclear weapons test in honor of late supreme leader Kim Il Sung’s birthday.

North Korea has conducted missile and nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. and unilateral sanctions, and while Beijing is Pyongyang’s sole major ally, China is also against its unpredictable “younger brother” acquiring a nuclear strike capacity.

“We call on all parties to refrain from provoking and threatening each other, whether in words or actions, and not let the situation get to an irreversible and unmanageable stage,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a regular news briefing on Friday.

The U.S. says it is assessing military options in response to reports of activity at a nuclear test site in North Korea ahead of Saturday’s 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung.

Meanwhile, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence travels to South Korea on Sunday on a scheduled regional visit, as Chinese diplomatic sources indicated to the South China Morning Post newspaper that Beijing isn’t obliged to help defend the North from a U.S. attack if it has developed nuclear weapons in defiance of U.N. resolutions.

The last Air China flight of the week between the two capitals arrived in Beijing at 6 p.m. Friday, leaving the North Korean state-run flag-carrier Air Koryo the only airline still flying there.

Full story: rfa.org

Reported by Yang Fan for RFA’s Mandarin Service, and by Goh Fung for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.