'China snubbed THAAD talks with Korea, US'

By Yi Whan-woo

President Moon Jae-in offered three-way talks with South Korea, the United States and China to find a solution to the conflict over the deployment of the U.S. missile shield in Korea during his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in early July, according to diplomatic sources, Wednesday.

The sources said Xi, however, did not answer if he would agree on the three-way meeting.

Moon then met Xi in Berlin, before joining the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, from July 7 to 8.

The Chinese government has kept mum about Moon’s proposal since then, fueling speculation that Beijing gave the cold shoulder to Seoul’s reconciliatory gesture concerning the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in South Korea.

“It’s true President Moon proposed having talks between South Korea, the U.S. and China to discuss issues about the THAAD deployment while launching a joint committee between Seoul and Beijing to go over technical issues,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity. “But President Xi did not immediately answer Moon.”

The sources said National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong secretly visited Beijing recently to discuss Moon’s proposal.

“It appears that Chung met senior Chinese officials and discussed relevant topics, including another meeting between the leaders of the two countries,” a source said.

Cheong Wa Dae refused to confirm Moon’s proposal, saying “It’s not appropriate to mention in detail what the two leaders discussed.”

It also denied Chung’s trip to Beijing.

The summit between Moon and Xi in Berlin raised hopes for a thaw in bilateral relations amid China’s bullying of South Korea in retaliation for the THAAD deployment.

But the two leaders failed to narrow their differences.

Moon advocated that THAAD is a defensive measure against North Korea’s ballistic missile threats while Xi reiterated Beijing’s fear that THAAD can be used to expand U.S. influence in the region and therefore must be removed from the Korean Peninsula.

The collision between Moon and Xi overshadowed a possible plan to hold their next summit to mark the 25th anniversary of the Seoul-Beijing diplomatic treaty on Aug. 24.