CHINA, N KOREA HAIL TIES AS US TALKS FAIL
US HAS NO POLITICAL WILL TO IMPROVE RELATIONS, SAYS PYONGYANG
BEIJING: China and North Korea on Sunday reaffirmed ties on the 70th year of the establishment of diplomatic relations, a day after the latest round of talks between Pyongyang and Washington on nuclear disarmament broke down in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
On Sunday night, the North’s foreign ministry issued a statement accusing the US of trying to mislead public opinion and “spreading a completely ungrounded story that both sides are open to meet” again. It said the talks “made us think they have no political will to improve (North Korea)-US relations and may be abusing the bilateral relations for their own partisan interests” at home.
North Korea isn’t willing to hold “such sickening negotiations” as those in Stockholm until the US takes “a substantial step to make complete and irreversible withdrawal of the hostile policy toward” the North, it added.
Exchanging congratulatory messages with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that in the past 70 years, the “traditional friendship” between the two countries stood the “test of time and changes in the international landscape”.
For his part, Kim said the two countries’ “invincible friendship will be immortal on the road of accomplishing the cause of socialism”, Pyongyang’s state news agency KCNA reported.
North Korea was among the first countries to establish ties with Beijing in 1949 after the Communist Party of China (CPC) took over the country.
China remains North Korea’s key benefactor both economically and diplomatically. Kim had travelled to China four times since March, 2018 to meet Xi; the last one in this January. Xi visited Pyongyang in June.
According to reports in South Korean media, Kim is preparing for another visit to China.
The discussions in Sweden took place after months of stalemate following a February meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump. Just days before the meeting, a defiant Pyongyang tested a sea-launched ballistic missile.
The North walked away from the Sweden talks saying it was disappointed at the lack of “new and creative” solutions offered by Washington.
A spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry said, “The fate of the US-North Korea dialogue is in Washington’s hands and the deadline is until the end of this year,” he said in a statement carried by KCNA.
In Stockholm, the nucleararmed North’s leading negotiator, Kim Myong Gil, blamed the US for not giving up their “old attitude” which led to talks ending “without any outcome”.
But Washington called the talks “good discussions”, saying the comments by North Korea did not reflect the content or the spirit their eight-and-a-half-hour discussion. The US accepted Sweden’s invitation to resume talks in two weeks’ time, said a state department spokeswoman.