US steps up pressure on China to rein in North Korea - Washington Post

The United States has stepped up diplomatic pressure on China by accusing its leaders of "enabling" North Korea to start a uranium-enrichment program and to launch attacks on South Korea, a senior U.S. administration official said this weekend.

In response to the North Korean moves and apparent Chinese acquiescence, Washington is moving to redefine its relationship with South Korea and Japan, potentially creating an anti-China bloc in Northeast Asia that officials say they don't want but may need.

In meetings with their Chinese counterparts in Beijing and in Washington since North Korea launched a deadly artillery barrage at a South Korean island on Nov. 23, U.S. officials have charged that China is turning a blind eye to North Korean violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions, international agreements and a 1953 armistice halting the Korean War that China helped to negotiate.

The accusations mark a further deterioration of the tone and direction of the U.S. relationship with Asia's emerging giant and come as both countries prepare for a second summit next month between President Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao.

"The Chinese embrace of North Korea in the last eight months has served to convince North Korea that China has its back and has encouraged it to behave with impunity," said a senior administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "We think the Chinese have been enabling North Korea."

The Korean Peninsula, the official added, has catapulted to the "top of the security agenda when President Hu comes here . . . and the Chinese are aware of it."

Obama called Hu on Sunday night to discuss North Korea and urged China to help send a clear message to Pyongyang "that its provocations are unacceptable," the White House said Monday.

"The president emphasized the need for North Korea to halt its provocative behavior and to meet its international obligations," the White House said. "The president condemned the North Korean shelling of a South Korean island on November 23 and its pursuit of a uranium enrichment program in defiance of its obligations." It said Obama "also highlighted the American commitment to the security of our allies in the region."

The White House statement said Obama and Hu agreed on the importance of working together toward the "shared goals" of peace and stability in Northeast Asia and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. But it made no mention of Hu's response to Obama's complaints about North Korea."

A Chinese statement on the phone call said Hu "regrets the loss of lives and property" in the North Korean shelling last month. It was the first such comment from Hu about the attack, but it echoed an earlier North Korean expression of regret for killing civilians.

The U.S. exasperation with China over the Koreas has been evident since June, when Obama accused China of "willful blindness" in remaining silent over North Korea's suspected sinking of a South Korean warship in March. But the administration's position now that China is in effect partially to blame for the problems is new.

At a meeting Monday with the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hopes to begin the process of tightening the three-way relationship, as a response to the persistent North Korean provocations and China's inaction. The United States and South Korea announced Friday the successful renegotiation of their free-trade agreement, which will be as important strategically as it is economically to the U.S. presence in the region.

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Group Plans to Keep Pressure on Newly Elected Conservatives - Wall Street Journal

A leading national tea-party group, anticipating big electoral gains for conservative Republicans, is laying plans to maintain pressure on new members of Congress after the Nov. 2 vote.

Associated Press Supporters at a St. Louis rally co-organized last month by the Tea Party Patriots. The group has emerged as a national coordinator for the movement.

According to an internal memorandum reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Tea Party Patriots, an umbrella group that says it works with nearly 3,000 local groups around the U.S., is planning a multipronged campaign that includes advertising, polling, hundreds of rallies, and a summit of newly elected members of Congress early in 2011.

Tea Party Patriot leaders say they are gearing up both to fight Democratic efforts to pass legislation during the lame-duck congressional session and for a struggle with conventional Republican leaders over the loyalties of new members of Congress.

They are seeking to raise $2.8 million to promote 2,000 tea parties on April 15, 2011—ahead of the tax-filing deadline— and at least four regional conventions during the year, as well as annual polling, nationwide leadership summits, college-campus clubs and more.

Tea Party Patriots is run by a committee of leaders scattered around the country and doesn't endorse or give money to specific candidates. But it has been instrumental in organizing national rallies that have attracted hundreds of thousands of participants. It also regularly coordinates efforts among hundreds of local tea-party groups.

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The meeting of newly elected officials, the date of which hasn't been set, is designed to keep new representatives connected to "what we expect from them," according to the memo. Incumbent Republican members of Congress and the party's national leadership won't be invited, said Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, in an interview.

"The incumbents have allowed us to get into the problems we are in now," he said. "We hope to get to the freshmen before the incumbents get to them, and start twisting their arms."

The memo cites comments regarding tea-party candidates by the former Senate majority leader for the Republicans, Trent Lott, to the Washington Post in July, when he was quoted as saying: "As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them."

"These are the same Republicans who played a role in the spending excesses of the last decade," the memo says.

Mr. Lott said in an interview that he regretted his choice of words in reference to working with tea-party candidates.

"All I'm saying is that the Republicans are going to need to work with the new members of Congress, whether they are from the tea party or anywhere else," Mr. Lott said. "To control spending or to get anything constructive done for the country, they're going to have to work together."

The plan has been circulating in tea-party circles over the past month and continues to be refined, including at a meeting this month in Atlanta of tea-party coordinators from around the country.

It references a 40-year-strategy for the organization and its goal to "convert 60% of more of the population to support our core values of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets."

Short-term post-election plans call for the Tea Party Patriots to mobilize against the lame-duck session of Congress and to prevent "disastrous bills that will likely be introduced or reintroduced, including cap-and-trade [proposals to regulate emissions], comprehensive immigration reform, additional stimulus spending, and campaign-finance reform," according to the memo.

Write to Jennifer Levitz at jennifer.levitz@wsj.com

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