Chinese President vows to create environment for dialogue on N. Korean nuke issue

Posted on : 2016-04-29 13:19 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
At meeting in Beijing, foreign ministers say they will thoroughly implement UN sanctions on North Korea
Chinese President Xi Jinxing (left) and Foreign Minister Wang Yi after the opening ceremony of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Beijing on Apr. 28. (EPA/Yonhap News)
Chinese President Xi Jinxing (left) and Foreign Minister Wang Yi after the opening ceremony of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Beijing on Apr. 28. (EPA/Yonhap News)

Foreign ministers at a multilateral conference spearheaded by China and Russia issued a declaration denouncing North Korea’s recent nuclear test and ballistic missile launches and stressing the need to create an environment conducive to denuclearization and a resumption of the Six-Party Talks on the North Korean nuclear issue.

While delivering a congratulatory address for the fifth Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Beijing on Apr. 28, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the need to “bring the [Korean] Peninsula issue back onto a dialogue and negotiation track quickly and achieve long-term stability in Northeast Asia.”

On the same day South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned at a Blue House National Security Council (NSC) meeting that the Kim Jong-un regime in Pyongyang “may not have a future if it carries out further nuclear tests despite the international community’s warnings.”

Item 31 of the declaration at the CICA foreign ministers’ meeting states the parties “condemn in the strongest terms” North Korea’s recent fourth nuclear test and multiple ballistic missile launches.

“We reaffirm that we will implement the resolution thoroughly and fully and will further strengthen international cooperation so that DPRK (North Korea) must abandon its nuclear program in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner according to relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions [and the terms of a joint declaration from the Six-Party Talks on Sept. 19, 2005],” the declaration read.

The text also expressed support for the 2005 joint declaration and efforts to establish the conditions and environment needed for a resumption of the Six-Party Talks through meaningful dialogue.

The official opinion on North Korea-related issues was the conference’s first. South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se - the first in his post to attend the conference - previously called for a “response to the nuclear issue” in bilateral talks with his Chinese and Russian counterparts.

In his address, Xi Jinping stressed “as a close neighbor of the [Korean] Peninsula, China cannot tolerate war and chaos taking place there.”

“I hope that the countries involved will exercise restraint and refrain from provoking each other and exacerbating the conflict,” he added.

At the NSC meeting, Park stressed the need to “prepare for an extremely uncertain security situation” if North Korea goes ahead with a nuclear test during her visit to Iran on May 1-3.

Park also instructed permanent NSC members to “hold regular meetings to tend to the country’s security and the safety of its people.”

By Lee Je-hun and Choi Hye-jung, staff reporters

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

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