Kim’s ‘gift’ looms over meet
Leaders vow more action on N Korea
CHENGDU: China hosted the leaders of squabbling neighbours South Korea and Japan for their first meeting in over a year yesterday, flexing its diplomatic muscle with America’s two key military allies in Asia and seeking unity on how to deal with a belligerent North Korea.
The gathering in the southwestern city of Chengdu was held with the clock ticking on a threatened “Christmas gift” from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that could reignite global tensions over its nuclear programme.
Mr Kim has promised the unidentified “gift” — which analysts and American officials believe could be a provocative missile test — if the United States does not make concessions in their nuclear talks by the end of the year.
The gathering also featured the first bilateral meeting between South Korea’s Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 15 months.
Ties between their two nations have hit rock bottom in recent months over trade issues and other disputes related to decades of bitter wrangling over Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.
The United States has frequently urged its two allies to bury the hatchet — worried that their poor relations were complicating diplomacy in Asia — although it has held off on direct mediation. China is appearing to fill that void with the Chengdu event.
At separate lead-up meetings in Beijing on Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Mr Moon and Mr Abe both spoke of China’s diplomatic heft in the region.
Before leaving for China, Mr Abe told reporters that links with Seoul remained “severe”. But he and Mr Moon were photographed smiling and shaking hands during the meeting.
Seoul’s presidential Blue House said Mr Moon described the two countries as “the closest neighbours geographically, historically and culturally” which “can never be apart”.
The relationship between Japan and
South Korea is overshadowed by the 35 years of brutal colonisation by the Japanese — including the use of sex slaves and forced labour — that is still bitterly resented today.
The leaders of the three countries also promised to help promote dialogue to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told a press conference they had “reaffirmed that denuclearisation of the peninsula and the lasting peace in East Asia are the common goal of the three countries”.
In an effort to pressure the United States, the North has conducted a series of short-range missile tests and threatened to go further with its “Christmas gift”.