By Xinhua writer Tian Dongdong, BEIJING, Jan. 6 — The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced that it successfully conducted its first hydrogen bomb test on Wednesday.
The move was highly regrettable. It was a breach of UN resolutions and a blow to the Korean Peninsula denuclearization process.
Meanwhile, the nuclear test, the fourth of its kind conducted by Pyongyang, has pushed further away any viable solution of the Korean Peninsula predicament and thrusted more uncertainty into regional stability.
Turning Northeast Asia into a keg of powder benefits none in the neighborhood, even the DPRK itself, which has pledged to promote economic development.
On the other hand, the DPRK’s defiance was deeply rooted in its strong sense of insecurity after years of hostility with the United States, whose pivot to Asia appears much like a show of muscles.
Yet maintaining security and achieving lasting peace in the region require each and every party to refrain from unilateral moves that might add fuel to the fire and escalate tensions out of control.
In the long run, dialogue and negotiation remain the only optimal means to erase the deep-seated suspicion between certain parties and eventually solve the decades-old Korean Peninsula stalemate.
Just as China has repeatedly advocated, the six-party talks still stands out as the most promising way out of the regional quagmire.
It is high time for all parties concerned to think and act rationally to create favorable conditions for an early resumption of the long-stalled mechanism.