By Lee Min-hyung
China is apparently discontent with North Korea's failure to demand a U.S. troop pullout from South Korea as a condition to the latter's upcoming denuclearization talks with the United States, according to Japanese media reports.
The Asahi Shimbun, citing sources, reported Beijing has expressed its concerns to North Korea after the North failed to take issue with the presence of American troops in South Korea when North Korean leader met U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang last month. Pompeo visited the North as President Donald Trump's special envoy.
The North's apparently changing perception toward the U.S. Forces Korea could be a seed of conflict between Pyongyang and Beijing, which views the USFK as a potential military threat.
Xi initially sought to visit Pyongyang ahead of the North Korea-U.S. summit, but he might have changed the plan out of discontent over the North's failure to make a demand for the troop pullout, the newspaper reported.
The withdrawal of some 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the South has for decades been a headache for China.
The North's peace gesture to the South and the U.S. is expected to put a brake on the recently-thawing Beijing-Pyongyang relations at a time when it is on a recovery track following a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in March.
Defense chiefs discuss upcoming NK-US dialogue
On Saturday night, Defense Minister Song Young-moo had a telephone conversation with his U.S. counterpart James Mattis, discussing their roles on the upcoming Washington-Pyongyang summit and inter-Korean military talks.
Song explained the result of the inter-Korean summit, and said he will do his utmost to bring lasting peace by closely negotiating relevant agendas with Washington.
"To fulfill the joint agreement from leaders of the two Koreas, the ministry will continue strengthening efforts on a defense side for the denuclearization on the peninsula," Song said.
Mattis responded that the inter-Korean summit contributed a lot to hosting a successful Washington-Pyongyang summit.
Both sides also pledged their bilateral cooperation by holding dialogue at the upcoming global defense conference of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June.
On the same day, leaders of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the two countries also talked on the phone.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Jeong Kyeong-doo said it would spare no efforts for the success of the upcoming United States-North Korea summit, in a 20-minute telephone talk with his U.S. counterpart Joseph Dunford, the South's defense ministry said.
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