By Kim Tae-gyu
XIAN ― South Korea wanted China to use a stronger language to condemn North Korea for its nuclear ambitions in their joint communique after the summit between President Park Geun-hye and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
But China objected, a Cheong Wa Dae official said Sunday.
“There was a tug-of-war as we attempted to put more clear expressions, which are aimed at condemning North Korea’s nuclear programs,” said the official who asked not to be named. “But Chinese negotiators refused to do so. I think they factored in the responses of North Korea.”
The two sides mentioned in the communiqué the “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” instead of the “denuclearization of North Korea,” which some South Korean diplomats hoped to add.
However, the official said that the two phrases mean the same thing.
“I think China and we were on the same page. What China meant was to stop the North Korean nuclear programs,” he said.
Some observers pointed out that the joint communique did not have any proof of real changes to China’s North Korea policies.
“Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula targets not only North Korea but also South Korea and eventually the United States, which offers a nuclear umbrella to South Korea,” said Chang Yong-seok, a researcher at the institute of Peace and Unification Studies.
“In that sense, I do not see any change of its attitude toward North Korea in the communique.”
After its third atomic test in February, which resulted in the U.N. imposing unprecedentedly strong sanctions on the communist country, the North has declared itself a full-fledged nuclear power.
Unlike in the past, Beijing actively participated in deciding and executing the punitive measures against Pyongyang. This is what got some observers thinking that there was a shift in Beijing’s North Korea policy.
China indeed offered special treatment to visiting Park but it failed to come up with a clear-cut opposition to North Korea’s nuclear programs.