Chinese leader makes clear his opposition to THAAD deployment in South Korea
President Park Geun-hye shakes hands with her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping before a summit in Hangzhou, Monday. /Yonhap
Chinese President Xi Jinping made it clear his opposition to the U.S. deployment of THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea during a summit with President Park Geun-hye in Hangzhou, Monday.
"Mishandling the issue is not conducive to strategic stability in the region, and could intensify disputes," Xi said during his summit with President Park on the sidelines of the summit of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies in China's eastern lakeside city of Hangzhou.
Xi reaffirmed China's commitment to realizing denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, safeguarding peace and stability of the peninsula, and solving relevant issues through dialogue and consultation.
The Chinese leader urged adhering to the six-party talks platform, considering the concern of various parties in a comprehensive and balanced way, addressing both symptoms and root, and realizing long-term peace and stability in the Peninsula.
During the summit, President Park called North Korea's continued provocations a challenge to relations between South Korea and China, voicing her hope for Seoul and Beijing to turn the situation into an opportunity to further strengthen their bilateral relationship.
"This year, North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test and a ballistic missile provocation, which has seriously undermined peace in this region and posed a challenge to the development of the South Korea-China relations," Park said at the summit.
"(I) hope that through earnest communication, our two countries can turn this challenge into an opportunity to further strengthen and move forward our bilateral relationship."
Touching on the bilateral ties, Xi said that the two nations should put their relations on the "right track" toward the stable and healthy development of their partnership, and play an "active role" for fostering peace in the region and the world.
Xi also pointed out that South Korea and China are close neighbors and share common interests, and that they should cherish the foundation of their political cooperation and surmount "difficulties and challenges."
The issue related to the stationing of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on the Korean Peninsula has emerged as a major thorn in the Seoul-Beijing relations as Beijing strongly opposes it, saying it would hurt its security interests.
Seoul has defended the move as an "inevitable, self-defense" measure to counter Pyongyang's evolving nuclear and missile threats.
In an interview with Russia's state-run news agency, Rossiya Segodnya, last week, Park stressed that if Pyongyang's escalating military threats are eliminated, the need for THAAD will "naturally" dissipate.
During his summit with U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday, Xi reiterated his opposition to THAAD, asking the United States to respect China's strategic security interests, according to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency.
He called on "all parties to refrain from any act that could escalate regional tension and collectively make positive efforts to put the situation back on the right track," the news agency reported. (Yonhap)