The Fourth Nuclear Security Summit is held in Washington D.C from March 31 to April 1. Personally advocated by United States President Barack Obama, the nuclear summit has been convened once every two years since 2010.

Following the summit meeting in Washington D.C. between President Obama and President Xi Jinping, the U.S.-China Joint Statement on Nuclear Security Cooperation was released

President Barack Obama will be meeting with Asian leaders in Washington this week as fears grow that long-smoldering tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in the South China Sea risk flaring into conflict.

The Chinese policy towards the DPRK was not made purely out of ideological considerations but developed its shape today due to geopolitical factors. Unforeseen aggression and expansion by Western powers led to a popular Chinese belief that the Korean Peninsula was a ‘strategic security shield’ for China. Over the years as China's political prowess has only grown North Korea is no longer a 'shield' but rather the 'shielded.'

The largest nuclear security center in the Asia-Pacific region, financed by China and the United States, opened Friday, according to authorities.

Pyongyang should pay a price for its violation of Security Council resolutions, but punishment by itself will not magically solve the nuclear problem. If sanctions could not be translated into a strategic rethink, they will only add more pain to the ordinary North Koreans' already miserable life.

This US defense installation would offer no real protection from the North’s usable weaponry, and would surely provoke the DPRK into a new, vicious cycle of action vs. reaction. The idea has already stirred strong protests from the Chinese and Russian governments, which believe THAAD, if deployed, will threaten their security interests. The idea of deploying THAAD on Korean soil is a bad example of how anger and angst can overpower and replace rational response.

Beijing should take effective measures to contain DPRK moves to develop and deploy nuclear weapons. China should also urge and assist the DPRK to reform, open up and pursue peaceful development, which is the right way of economic development and improvement of people’s livelihood.

China and the United States have yet to reach consensus in response to the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. is not prepared to follow China’s path toward a rapid resurrection of the Six-Party Talks, while Beijing resists imposing alternative U.S. policies of applying unilateral sanctions on North Korea’s foreign enablers or reinforcing military pressure on Pyongyang.

Pyongyang’s recent missile tests show that becoming a nuclear power is not merely a bargaining chip but a genuine threat. The next US president will take renewed stock of the situation in the DPRK in 2017, and Beijing should start doing that right now. Protecting its own homeland security should and must be the fundamental gauge for China’s policy towards the DPRK.