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By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter and Seong Yeon-cheol, Beijing correspondent

In a press conference that was held shortly after the Korea-China summit on June 27, South Korean President Park Geun-hye declared that she and her Chinese counterpart agreed that it was not acceptable for North Korea to possess nuclear weapons. But on the following day, Chinese premier Li Keqiang made clear that China takes a different view from South Korea, reconfirming the country’s standard position about “denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.”

“The Chinese leader and I share the view that North Korean possession of nuclear weapons cannot be tolerated in any situation,” Park said in the press conference held shortly after the summit. The joint statement of vision for the future that the South Korea and China adopted on June 27 states, “South Korea made clear that North Korean possession of nuclear weapons cannot be tolerated in any situation.”

However, China only said, “in regard to this, both sides agree that the development of nuclear weapons by related parties is a serious threat to the peace and stability of Northeast Asia, including the Korean peninsula.” China’s careful deliberation is evident when it says that “related parties” must be denuclearized, without actually specifying “North Korea.” China was apparently trying to avoid seeming to be joining South Korea to put pressure on the North

It could also be seen that China’s position essentially remained unchanged in the summit between Park and Xi. This was also evident in the emphatic comments made by Li Keqiang during his June 28 conference with Park. “China’s position on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is clear, firm, and unchanging,” Li said. “We hope that the six-party talks can be resumed soon and that the peace and stability of the peninsula will be protected.”

In fact, the question of whether this summit would be a success depended on how clearly China would support South Korean efforts toward North Korean denuclearization. Because of this, diplomats in Seoul had differing views about whether China would specifically say that North Korea must denuclearize or would continue to use the phrase “the Korean peninsula.” In the end, China did not talk about the denuclearization of the North, instead speaking in vaguer terms about the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

The Blue House did not make any particular reference to Park’s comments about the denuclearization of North Korea. Because of that, some observers propose that Park’s comments were influenced by her anxiety about failing to convince China, while others suggest that China allowed her to make comments of this sort to compensate for not having endorsed South Korea’s position. But Li’s remarks show that it is very likely that China and South Korea did not reach a prior understanding of what Park would say.

Rather, there are certain parts of the joint statement in which China seems to be asking South Korea to engage more actively in dialogue with Pyongyang. This is the part of the statement in which both sides call for “strengthening all kinds of bilateral and multilateral dialogue in the framework of the six-party talks.” Since the only countries that could take part in bilateral talks with North Korea about the nuclear issue are South Korea and the US, this could be interpreted as China urging the two countries to push a little harder for talks.

Indeed, former Chinese foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan paid a courtesy call on Park right after the inter-Korean minister-level talks (scheduled for June 12) were called off because of the issue of the rank of the delegation leader. During his visit, he advised Park to “move forward with the trust-building process for the Korean peninsula with confidence.” At the time, the Blue House interpreted this as China expressing its support for the trust-building process for the Korean peninsula, but in the context in which the remarks were made, it could also be seen as urging South Korea to confidently take part in dialogue with the North.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]