
SEOUL -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday urged China to use its influence over North Korea to push the isolated nation to denuclearize.
"China has a critical role to play in working to convince North Korea to pursue denuclearization," Blinken told reporters in Seoul. "China has a unique relationship with North Korea. Virtually all of North Korea's economic relationships is its trade with China ... so it has tremendous influence, and I think it has a shared interest in making sure that we do something about North Korea's nuclear program and about the increasingly dangerous ballistic missile program."