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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping walk along the beach in Dalian, China, on May 8. (Xinhua News/Yonhap News)
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Japanese newspaper indicates Chinese president’s displeasure at being excluded
Chinese President Xi Jinping asked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to postpone the formal declaration of the end of the Korean War until after the North Korea-US summit, according to a report in the Japanese press. During Kim and Xi’s summit in Dalian, China, in early May, Xi explained to Kim that China needed to participate in the declaration since it had fought in the Korean War alongside North Korea, Japanese newspaper the Tokyo Shimbun reported, quoting a source who spoke on condition of anonymity. According to the newspaper, Xi expressed his displeasure at the idea of the leaders of North Korea and the US declaring the end of the war on their own. China also indicated on several occasions before the June 12 North Korea-US summit that it would oppose a declaration of the end of the war if it were left out, the newspaper said. Shortly before the North Korea-US summit, Chinese newspaper the Global Times ran an editorial stating that China must be allowed to sign a formal declaration of the end of the war. Attention had been riveted on the possibility of the Korean War being formally ended during the North Korea-US summit. This interest had been sparked by the following passage in the Panmunjeom Declaration, which was signed during the inter-Korean summit on Apr. 27: “During this year that marks the 65th anniversary of the Armistice, South and North Korea agreed to actively 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 declaring an end to the war, converting the armistice agreement to a peace treaty and establishing a permanent and solid peace regime. Japanese newspaper the Asahi Shimbun reported earlier that Xi asked Kim during their summit in Dalian to call for the halting of South Korea-US joint military exercises during the North Korea-US summit. If various reports in the Japanese media are true, China appears to have been actively making requests of North Korea in an attempt to increase its sway over developments on the Korean Peninsula. “It had been widely held that a formal declaration of the end of the war did not appear in the joint statement after the North Korea-US summit because of reluctance from the US to make unilateral concessions, but this was something that China had urged upon North Korea. Once again we see the great powers of the US and China fighting for the lead in affairs on the Korean Peninsula with North Korea in the middle,” the Tokyo Shimbun said. By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
