Seoul, Beijing: We’ll cooperate on North Korea
Pyongyang says Trump begging for war during Asia trip • Abe hails ‘fresh start’ for China ties
SEOUL/DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) – The leaders of South Korea and China on Saturday agreed on the need to manage the security situation on the Korean peninsula in a stable way and to resolve North Korea-related tensions peacefully after a summit meeting, the South’s presidential office said.
For this, the two countries will strengthen strategic talks on all levels, presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan told reporters in Danang, Vietnam, where a meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and China’s Xi Jinping was held on the sidelines of a summit of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
Xi told Moon that he encouraged South Korea to resume dialog with North Korea and reengage with them for reconciliation and denuclearization, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Tension on the Korean peninsula rose last month as North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump exchanged war-like threats and insults over the North’s nuclear and missile development program.
On Saturday, North Korea said Trump’s first trip to Asia showed he was a “destroyer” and he had begged for war on the Korean peninsula, in a statement carried by the state news agency.
“Trump made his conceived attempt, yet again, to alienate our people from the government,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
China has been urged by both South Korea and the United States to take a more active role in curbing North Korea’s nuclear and missile ambitions.
Beijing has said it is complying with United Nations Security Council sanctions and doing all it can to curb the isolated state’s provocative actions.
During Saturday’s summit, Moon and Xi also agreed to quickly normalize bilateral exchanges in all sectors, Yoon added, repeating what was said in the agreement announced last month when the two countries agreed to end a yearlong standoff over the deployment of a US anti-missile system.
South Korean companies with Chinese customers had suffered due to backlash from China, which has vehemently opposed the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.
Xi urged South Korea to take a “responsible attitude on THAAD that stands the test of history,” Xinhua said.
Xi was quoted as saying it would be “new beginnings and a good start” by Yoon.
Meanwhile, the two agreed for Moon to visit Xi in China in December to hold another round of summit talks, while Moon invited Xi to South Korea during the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, which falls in February next year, the spokesman said.
The Chinese president said he would try, and if he were unable to make it would send a high-ranking team of envoys, cited Yoon.
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Xi hailed a “fresh start” to the relationship between their countries after a meeting that saw them agree to work more closely on North Korea.
The leaders met on the sidelines of the APEC summit.
Ties between China and Japan, the world’s second- and third-largest economies, have been plagued by a long-running territorial dispute over a cluster of East China Sea islets.
“At the end of the meeting, President Xi said this is a meeting that marks a fresh start of relations between Japan and China. I totally feel the same way,” Abe told reporters.
Abe said he has proposed visiting China at an appropriate time, which would then be followed by a Xi visit to Japan.
At the meeting, the two countries agreed to deepen their cooperation on North Korea and to hold a trilateral summit with South Korea at the earliest possible date.
“With the North Korea situation at an important phase, the role China ought to play is very big,” Abe said.
China and Japan have also agreed to accelerate talks for an early implementation of a communication mechanism between their military forces, Abe said. He also proposed that Japan and China cooperate in doing business in third countries.
China’s statement about the meeting, released by the official Xinhua news agency, cited Xi as telling Abe that stable relations were in both sides’ interests, and that they must make unremitting efforts to continue improving ties.
The two countries “must take constructive steps to appropriately manage and control disputes that exist between the two countries,” Xi added.