At summit, US and China agree on North Korean denuclearization

Posted on : 2013-06-10 13:46 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
But Chinese leader apparently unsuccessful in seeking a quick return to the six-party talks
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By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent in Rancho Mirage, California

At their recent summit, US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed not to recognize North Korea as a nuclear power and agreed to work together toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. However, the US stuck to its existing stance on resolving the North Korean nuclear issue, showing a negative attitude toward the idea of quickly resuming the six-party talks.

Thomas Donilon, the national security advisor for the White House, met with reporters at the Westin Resort in Rancho Mirage, California, on June 8 after the two-day summit meeting between Obama and Xi was complete. “Last night at dinner we had a lengthy discussion about North Korea,” Donilon said.

“[The two leaders] agreed that North Korea has to denuclearize; that neither country will accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state; and that we would work together to deepen US-China cooperation and dialogue to achieve denuclearization,” said Donilon.

In regard to this, Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi said, “the thing that is urgently needed now is to reopen talks as quickly as possible.

Nevertheless, it appears that the two leaders were unable to come to an agreement about the six-party talks. When a reporter asked if they had talked about whether the six-party talks should be reopened, Donilon said, "It was a discussion about the importance of any talks going forward being authentic and credible, that is, talks that would actually lead to a sensible result. And we really haven’t seen from the North Koreans at this point that kind of commitment on the substance of potential talks, I think, at this point to move forward."

Before the summit took place, many observers had expected that Xi Jinping would ask the US to seek an end North Korea’s nuclear program through the six-party talks. But the explanation offered by Donilon suggests that Xi’s attempt to persuade Obama on this point was not successful.

Ultimately, the talks were a chance for the two leaders to reaffirm the existing goal of denuclearizing North Korea, but it appears that they were unable to come up with any concrete methods for achieving this. With respect to this issue, Donilon said that Xi and Obama reached "full agreement that in fact the Security Council resolutions which put pressure on North Korea need to be enforced, and full agreement that we will work together to look at steps that need to be taken in order to achieve the goal."

The reference to enforcing UN Security Council resolutions suggests that the two countries will prioritize implementing sanctions against the North, while the mention of working together to find ways to achieve this goal implies that the leaders intend to explore the possibility of reopening the six-party talks. Observers expect that the question of which of these two the US and China focus on will be determined to a significant extent by what action North Korea takes in the future in regard to denuclearization.

Consequently, the discussion of the North Korean nuclear program at the China-South Korea summit meeting scheduled to take place in Beijing, China, from June 27 to June 30 has become somewhat more important. The points of interest about South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s meeting with Xi are how she will define the connection between improving inter-Korean relations and the North Korean nuclear question and how she will respond to the US position that North Korea must take meaningful steps toward denuclearization before anything else is done. If the US requests or pressures the South Korean government to stall until North Korea takes the first steps toward denuclearization, it seems inevitable that this will have a negative impact on cabinet-level talks between the North and South and on efforts to improve inter-Korean relations.

During the press conference, Donilon also said that Obama and Xi did not discuss the issue of North Korean defectors.

 

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