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The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on May 3 that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) met with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho at Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang on May 2. (KCNA, Yonhap News)
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Minister Wang Yi expresses China’s support of North Korea’s denuclearization and Korea’s conversion from armistice into a peace regime
With the North Korea-US summit coming up, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. This was the first time in 11 years that a Chinese Foreign Minister has visited North Korea. Wang expressed his support for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the conversion to a peace treaty and North Korea’s reform and opening. The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that Wang, who spent two days in North Korea, met with Kim on May 3, the second day of his trip. “A positive change has occurred in the affairs of the Korean Peninsula since North Korea decided that the time was right to make a bold decision. China supports and congratulates North and South Korea on the successful meeting of their leaders and on the Panmunjeom Declaration, which marks a new era,” Wang told Kim. This basically gives Kim all the credit for the recent changes on the Korean Peninsula. Wang explained that “China supports ending the state of war on the Korean Peninsula and converting from an armistice regime to a peace regime, the shift in North Korea’s strategic focus toward building the economy, and the resolution of North Korea’s legitimate strategic concerns during the process of denuclearization.” During a meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho the previous day, Wang also confirmed China’s support for improving inter-Korean relations and North Korea’s pursuing the development course that is right for it. “Legitimate security concerns” appears to be an oblique reference to guaranteeing the regime’s security, which North Korea has mentioned as a condition for denuclearization. The phrase about “the development course that is right for it” is an expression that China has often used to explain its adoption of capitalist elements in its pursuit of reform and opening while maintaining one-party rule by the Communist Party. Taken together, these remarks appear to mean that China will help North Korea with the conversion to a peace regime, reform and opening, and a security guarantee for the regime on the condition of the North’s denuclearization. The fact that Wang promised his support for the conversion to a peace regime can be taken as China’s determination to play some kind of role in this process, since China was a party to the armistice agreement. In the Panmunjeom Declaration, the leaders of South and North Korea agreed to “pursue trilateral meetings involving the two Koreas and the United States, or quadrilateral meetings involving the two Koreas, the United States and China with a view to [. . .] establishing a permanent and solid peace regime. The Blue House has already announced that it has a plan for South Korea, North Korea and the US to declare the end of the Korean War and for those three parties plus China to participate in the peace treaty. Some analysts think that the very fact that Wang visited North Korea is an attempt to minimize the risk that China’s leadership position on the Korean Peninsula will be eroded by the overtures between North Korea and the US. In an editorial titled “China is a mountain next to the peninsula, not a bale of hay,” Chinese newspaper the Global Times did not conceal its dissatisfaction with the Panmunjeom Declaration, stating that “the language used during the meeting between Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in was tailored to South Korea’s political needs.” During his meeting with Wang, Kim Jong-un affirmed North Korea’s traditional relationship with China and the results of his visit to China, remarking that “North Korea wants to strengthen its strategic communication with China and highly values China’s active contributions to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula.” Kim added that “The denuclearization of the peninsula is North Korea’s firm position” and emphasized that the recent developments on the peninsula were “significant and beneficial to the peaceful resolution of peninsular issues.” By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
