Moon, Xi agree on N-goal
South Korean Prez talks to US, China, Japan over denuclearising the peninsula
Seoul, May 11: Chinese leader Xi Jinping and new South Korean President Moon Jae-In agreed that denuclearising North Korea was a “common goal” between them in their first telephone conversation on Thursday, Mr Moon’s office said.
Mr Moon spoke to Mr Xi and the Japan Prime Minister on Thursday, hours after a telephone call with his US counterpart Donald Trump, officials and reports said.
Ties between Seoul and Beijing have soured over the South’s deployment of a controversial US antimissile system, Thaad, aimed at guarding against threats from the nucleararmed North.
Mr Moon, who took office on Wednesday, favours engagement with the North — whose key diplomatic backer is China — to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear and missile ambitions.
He has previously expressed ambivalence over the Thaad system and told Mr Xi he was "well aware" of Chinese concerns about it.
Echoing the United States’ line, Mr Moon suggested that China should do more to tame Pyongyang, saying “solving the Thaad problem would be easier if there was no more provocation by the North.”
During the 40-minute conversation with Mr Xi he proposed sending a special delegation to Beijing that would “exclusively discuss the Thaad and the North’s nuclear issues”, Mr Moon’s spokesman Yoon Young-Chan said.
Mr Xi officially invited Mr Moon to visit Beijing, Mr Yoon added.
Mr Moon and US President Donald Trump agreed on “close cooperation” in dealing with the North’s nuclear ambitions in their first talk on Wednesday night.
Mr Moon also had a call with Shinzo Abe, Japanese news agency Jiji reported.
Seoul is embroiled in a diplomatic dispute with former colonial power Japan over wartime history, but fellow US ally Tokyo is also targeted by the North.
Mr Moon called for “dialogue along with sanctions and pressure” on the North to push Pyongyang to talks, Mr Yoon said.