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| President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the start of their summit at the Westin Hotel, Osaka, Japan, Thursday evening, a day ahead of the official G20 summit. Yonhap |
Xi Jinping asks President Moon to resolve THAAD issue
By Kim Yoo-chul
OSAKA ― North Korean leader Kim Jong-un remains "strongly committed" to denuclearization and dialogue with the United States, Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Thursday.
At the summit held on the eve of the G20 summit, the Chinese leader delivered Kim's wishes to return to the nuclear dialogue "as early as possible," citing his recent meeting with Kim in Pyongyang.
Kim is hoping to see improvements of "external conditions" as Pyongyang is trying to concentrate on economic development that affects its people's livelihood, Xi said.
"Xi said Kim's repeated willingness to denuclearization hasn't changed. As North Korea initiated a new strategic line of economic development and improving people's livelihoods, the North Korean leader Kim is wishing to see improvements in external conditions," Xi told Moon, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman Ko Min-jung.
"Xi also told Moon that the North Korean leader was hoping for reasonable momentum to resume nuclear disarmament talks," the spokeswoman told reporters in a briefing.
Xi recently met Kim in Pyongyang during the first Chinese state visit to the North Korean capital in 14 years. He plans to hold a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 gathering.
The Chinese president also asked Moon to review a resolution to a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) dispute, which has been a thorn in Beijing's side after South Korea's decision to deploy the U.S. missile defense system in 2017.
"That's why denuclearization should be completed and achieved. Each of these issues ― THAAD and denuclearization of North Korea ― need to be best dealt with in parallel," Moon told Xi.
At the summit, the President asked his Chinese counterpart to play a role in getting North Korea to resume the denuclearization dialogue at an early stage, which Xi accepted.
"Because China has an exceptional influence on the North, it has been said Xi Jinping may link trade negotiations with the U.S. to the North Korean nuclear talks standoff as a way to press Trump to offer concessions," a presidential aide said. About 90 percent of the North's foreign trade is with China. In Pyongyang, Xi told Kim he would provide security guarantees and clarified Beijing's position of support for his regime.
Moon arrived in Osaka, Thursday afternoon, to attend the meeting of leaders of the 20 most developed countries, and participate in discussions on key political and economic challenges facing the world.
He plans to use this year's G20 summit to seek visible diplomatic progress in ending the standoff in denuclearization talks between North Korea and the United States by seeking the support of the leaders of China and Russia.
On the sidelines of the summit, various bilateral meetings are anticipated involving U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Presidential aides told The Korea Times that President Moon will look to play a central role in advancing the nuclear dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, with support from Xi and Putin.
The meeting with Xi summit came after Moon confirmed talks for a third U.S.-North Korea summit were underway, and that the international community was considering easing economic sanctions on the impoverished North in exchange for it completely dismantling its main Yongbyon nuclear complex.
At a summit with Putin scheduled for Friday, Moon will discuss ways to provide compensation to the North for each step in the denuclearization process plan. He also plans to bring up the possibility of multilateral nuclear disarmament talks.
Moon said earlier that as there was still "considerable distrust" between Washington and Pyongyang ― a hurdle to progress in denuclearization talks ― a possible resumption of two inter-Korean economic projects could be used as "leverage." The two projects are the Gaeseong Industrial Complex and a Mount Geumgang tourism program, both of which remain suspended.
Japan was still reviewing the possibility of a "brief encounter" between Abe and Moon after the President said he was waiting for a response from Tokyo to a request for talks to advance relations between the two countries.
South Korea and Japan have yet to resolve longstanding historical issues. Tokyo was unhappy about recent legal rulings passed in Seoul that ordered Japanese companies to compensate to wartime forced laborers. Another presidential aide said Seoul proposed an idea of establishing a joint fund by companies in the two countries to address the issue, however, Tokyo refused to accept this.
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