Xi’s envoy visits S.Korea
Yang Jiechi informs Seoul about Kim’s China visit
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s special representative Yang Jiechi on Thursday met Chung Eui-yong, chief security adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in Seoul, and briefed the South Korean side of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s recent visit to China.
Experts said China should actively participate in the Korean Peninsula issue to safeguard the positive trend.
Yang is a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the General Office of the Central Committee for Foreign Affairs.
Yang informed Chung about Kim’s visit to China, and said the international community needs to make efforts to sustain the positive trend of the peninsula issue, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Yang said China hopes the inter-Korea and North Korea-US summits are held, and that China will strengthen communication and coordination with South Korea in a joint effort to further ease the situation. He said by combining China’s “dual track” approach and other constructive advice from various sides, China wishes to push for a political solution on the peninsula issue.
Cheng Xiaohe, an associate professor at the Renmin University of China’s School of International Studies, told the Global Times that “China has significant economic and strategic interests in the Korean Peninsula, so it must maintain its active participation, and with developments in the situation, China’s diplomatic activities will become more frequent.”
The meeting in Seoul came one day after China announced that Kim paid an unofficial visit to Beijing, where he held meetings with Xi.
The Yonhap News Agency reported that Yang and Chung exchanged the two countries’ views on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
“I congratulate and welcome the successful summit between President Xi and Chairman Kim,” Chung told the visiting Chinese official at the start of their meeting in a Seoul hotel, Yonhap reported.
“The ROK [the Republic of Korea] extends sincere gratitude to China, and expects the Chinese side to continue playing an important role, and stands ready to cement coordination with China to safeguard the current easing momentum of the peninsula situation,” he said.
“Yang’s visit is a reciprocal response to Chung’s previous visit to China. South Korea has briefed China about its communication with North Korea and the US, so China should also keep in touch with South Korea and provide Seoul with updated information,” Cheng said.
Chung, as the special envoy of Moon, visited China on March 12. Chung said at the meeting with Xi that “the current situation on the Korean Peninsula has improved, and China has played an important leading role in it,” according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website.
Yang is set to meet South Korean President Moon on Friday, Yonhap reported.
Role of dialogue
President Moon and Chairman Kim are scheduled to meet for a third inter-Korea summit on April 27 in Panmunjom, Yonhap reported.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at Thursday’s daily briefing that “as a close neighbor of the Korean Peninsula, China has always welcomed dialogue between the two Koreas, and is happy to see improved relations as well as détente and cooperation between them.”
Since the start of the year, the situation on the Korean Peninsula has improved, and dialogue has again become the main method, and as everyone knows, this is what China always supports, Lu said. “We hope the trend of dialogue and peace could be continued.”
Through a series of challenges and problems in the past, the peninsula issue has finally returned to what China has always wanted to see, and without China’s consistent support, like mediations and fulfilling UN Security Council resolutions, the situation would not have changed, said Lü Chao, a research fellow at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences.
“The main trend is positive but some things could damage the trend, such as the lack of mutual trust and the differences in preconditions for denuclearization, so China needs to keep coordinating with relevant countries to safeguard the trend,” Cheng noted.