Beijing on Kabul blast, NKorea, THAAD, US test

published: 2017-06-05 12:50:31(31 May 2017) China strongly condemned on Wednesday a bomb attack on a highly secure diplomatic area of Kabul that killed 80 people and wounded as many as 350. The target of the attack, which officials said was a suicide car bombing, was not immediately known, but Ismail Kawasi, spokesman of the Afghan public health ministry, said most of the casualties were civilians, including women and children. China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing that China was “against all forms of terrorism” and that it would work with Afghanistan and the rest of the international community in fighting it. Speaking at the same briefing Hua expressed concern over reports that two US aircraft carriers will conduct training in the Sea of Japan. “We hope the relevant parties can keep restraint,” said Hua. US and Japanese media say the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is expected to join the USS Carl Vinson in the Sea of Japan as early as Wednesday amid the high tensions with North Korea. Hua also said all countries should “act prudently” when it came to anti-missile tests. The US announced on Tuesday success with its missile defence programme, destroying a mock warhead over the Pacific Ocean with an interceptor that is key to protecting US territory from a North Korean attack. On the deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence system, or THAAD, in South Korea meanwhile Hua repeated China’s strong opposition to its presence. South Korea’s new president Moon Jae-in on Tuesday demanded an investigation into why his office wasn’t told by defence officials about the arrival of several additional launchers for a contentious US missile defense system meant to cope with North Korea’s nuclear threat.

Seoul and Washington have argued that the missile system is aimed at North Korean aggression, while China sees it as a threat to its own security because its radar can peer deep into northeastern China.