China says it will never use nuclear weapons on “nuke-free zones”

China’s Pang Sen, the director general of the Foreign Ministry’s Arms Control Department has made a statement declaring that China would not use its nuclear weapons on ‘nuclear free zones’. It comes after a visit to the United Nations HQ in Geneva with the topic being about de-nuclearization.

The topic came up because of the current status between North Korea, South Korea, the United States and Japan. In recent weeks China has declared that it would work with the United States on de-nuclearizing the Korean peninsula.

Mr. Pang Sen further mentioned and explicitly named Japan as a nation that it would not attack with nuclear weapons “under any circumstances” and said this policy also applied to countries that don’t possess nuclear weapons capability.

China, which has a stockpile of 240 nuclear weapons and that have a maximum range of 14,000 km, has a “No first use” policy on nuclear weapons and has said it would never use nuclear weapons against any country unless to reciprocate against nuclear first-strike.