China seeks key role in talks

Foreign Minister in Pyongyang after historic summit

Cin Seoul hina’s Foreign Minister arrived in North Korea’s capital yesterday and could meet with leader Kim Jong Un while trying to ensure a larger role for Beijing in the new round of nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang that had been driven by Seoul and Washington.

Wang Yi’s visit came days after Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae In vowed to work toward the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula, though they did not mention specific plans or timetables.

They also agreed to work toward formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War and push for three-way talks with Washington or four-way talks that also include Beijing to do so. The Koreas can’t officially end the war themselves because South Korea wasn’t a direct signatory to the armistice that stopped the fighting but left the peninsula technically in a state of war.

More substantial discussions on the North’s denuclearisation — including what, when and how it would occur — are expected between Kim and President Donald Trump, who could meet in May or June.

Meanwhile, South Korea, China and Japan will hold a trilateral summit in Tokyo next week.

Wang is likely to use his visit to Pyongyang to further ensure that Beijing would not be sidelined in the high-stakes discussions surrounding the North. Some South Korean analysts believe Wang would specifically seek Kim’s commitment that the process on formally ending the war would include China.

The meeting between Kim and Moon at the border truce village of Panmunjom on Friday came a month after Kim made a surprise visit to Beijing and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Kim’s Beijing visit was widely seen as a move to strengthen his leverage ahead of his talks with Trump by reintroducing China as a major player in the global diplomatic push to resolve the nuclear standoff.

Analysts say Kim would have asked China, North Korea’s only major ally and main economic lifeline, to soften its enforcement of sanctions aimed at the North. Kim also may have sought Chinese commitments to strongly oppose any military measure the United States might take should his talks with Trump fall apart and the North start testing missiles again.

Meanwhile, South Korea says the issue of US troops stationed in the South is unrelated to any future peace treaty with North Korea and that American forces should stay even if such an agreement is signed. Presidential spokesman Kim Eui Kyeom said US troops stationed in South Korea “are an issue regarding the alliance” between South Korea and the US. — AP