Xi softens tone over THAAD

President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping shake hands ahead of their bilateral talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, Monday. / Yonhap

Seoul, Beijing confirm stance against N. Korea provocations

By Kang Seung-woo

HANGZHOU, China — President Park Geun-hye and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in bilateral talks, Monday, that North Korea’s continued provocations provide a grave challenge to Seoul-Beijing relations.

Xi, however, told Park that China continues to oppose the planned deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea, saying both sides should respect each other’s interests for stable development of bilateral ties.

In response, Park renewed calls for China to exert influence on North Korea to stop its nuclear program, saying South Korea would not need the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system without the threats from the North.

She voiced her hope that Seoul and Beijing will turn the situation into an opportunity to further strengthen ties, and Xi agreed, according to Cheong Wa Dae.

It was their first meeting since Seoul and Washington decided in July to station a THAAD battery on the Korean Peninsula to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. The decision drew a backlash from China and Russia, who argued that the system would undermine their security interests. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the Chinese eastern city of Hangzhou.

Immediately after their summit was over, the Kim Jong-un regime test-fired three ballistic missiles into waters off its east coast, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“China and South Korea should make efforts to get their bilateral ties back on track toward stable development,” Xi said during the meeting with Park, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

Describing the two nations as “close neighbors with common interests, he said that they should hold dear the foundation of their political cooperation and get over difficulties and challenges.

He claimed that “mishandling the issue is not conducive to strategic stability in the region, and could intensify disputes.”

“China is willing to work with South Korea to better protect and advance their hard-won ties,” he said.

He also said the two sides should respect each other’s core interests to ensure bilateral ties are “stable and go further.”

In response, Park defended the deployment as an inevitable, self-defense measure against growing threats from Pyongyang.

“The North’s fourth nuclear test and a string of ballistic missile launches are threatening peace in the region and posing a challenge to the development of relations between South Korea and China,” Park said.

“I hope that through earnest communication, our two countries can turn this challenge into an opportunity to further strengthen and move our bilateral relationship forward,” she said.

According to Kim Kyou-hyun, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs and national security, President Park also mentioned a conditional THAAD deployment as she did in an interview with Russia’s Rossiya Segodnya, released Friday.

“President Park said that if North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats were eliminated, the need to deploy the THAAD system would naturally disappear,” Kim said in a briefing.

In response to China’s claim that THAAD could be used to spy on it, Park made it clear that there is no reason for the system to target any third country, and the Korean government does not have any such intentions or plans, Kim added.

“President Park also hoped that South Korea, China and the United States will have constructive and comprehensive discussions about the issue,” the senior secretary said.

Amid growing North Korean provocations, President Park stressed the need for a joint stern response from China and South Korea.

“The President hoped that the two nations can work closely together to resolve North Korean issues,” Kim said.

The Chinese president also reaffirmed his country’s strong commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and securing peace and stability, while pledging to fully implement the latest set of United Nations Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang.

The sanctions were imposed in March in response to the repressive state’s nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch the following month.