01:44 04.05.2017, © AFP 2017/ AAMIR QURESHI
Japanese media reported Tuesday that troops from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) stationed near the North Korean border are being taught key phrases in Korean, in case people the from the North attempt to cross the border during an attack from the US.
The report in Yomiuri Shimbun said the soldiers are learning phrases like “Stop!” and “Don’t move or I’ll shoot!”
“Korean lessons are known to be happening throughout the Chinese-North Korea border given by ethnic Koreans living in China as instructors,” the newspaper added.
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson transits the South China Sea while conducting flight operations on April 9, 2017.
China has consistently called for a diplomatic resolution to heightened tensions between Pyongyang and Washington, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang telling both nations to “stop irritating each other,” and “lower the temperature” of their rhetoric.
These comments followed the US flying B-1B strategic bombers over the Korean Peninsula in a move Pyongyang called a “reckless military provocation” that could push the peninsula to the “brink of nuclear war.”
The North claimed the planes conducted “a nuclear bomb dropping drill against major objects” in the country.
China has also called for the US to halt the deployment of the controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) in South Korea, as Beijing fears the system’s radar could be used for espionage.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told a Tuesday briefing, “We oppose the deployment of the US missile system to South Korea and call on all parties to immediately stop this process. We are ready to take necessary measures to protect our interests,” according to RT.