McCain: Enlist China in N. Korea issues

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- John McCain, a Republican candidate for president, said Sunday if elected he would enlist China's help in getting North Korea to stick to the deals it makes.

The Arizona senator told CBS' "Face the Nation" that if elected president he would continue negotiations to get North Korea to dismantle it's nuclear capability and to stop marketing its military technology. But he said they would have to be "ironclad agreements which all of us agree have no loopholes whatsoever such as the one that existed in the Cato agreement back in the '90s that was negotiated by the Clinton administration."

"So yeah, I'd continue the negotiations, but I'd also tell our Chinese friends, who have a lot of and the only ones who really have leverage over North Korea, that we expect better behavior of the North Koreans," McCain said. "We expect the Chinese to help us in Burma. We expect the Chinese to help us in Darfur. And I remain more greatly concerned about whether China is going to assume its rightful, responsible role as an emerging superpower."

McCain said the North Koreans are selling technology to other countries "because of their collapsed economy."