South Korea’s national security adviser on Monday praised China as having played a role in helping push North Korea toward new denuclearization talks.
Chung Eui-yong’s meeting with China’s top foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi follows last week’s announcement of a planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“Our President, Moon Jae-in, and the [South Korean] government believe that various advances toward achieving the goal of peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula were made with active support and contribution from President Xi Jinping and the Chinese government,” Chung said.
Yang reiterated China’s position that it wants to see the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and to solve problems through dialogue.
U.S. officials vowed Sunday they would not make any concessions to North Korea ahead of the summit and would continue to pressure North Korea.
“Make no mistake about it, while these negotiations are going on, there will be no concession made,” Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Pompeo told “Fox News Sunday.”
Pompeo said the North Korean ruler must “continue to allow us to perform our military-necessary exercises” with South Korea, “and then he’s got to make sure that he leaves on the table that discussion for denuclearization” of his military.
Tufts University Korean Studies assistant professor Sung Yoon Lee told VOA that Kim has tricked the world into believing he has offered concessions.
“We know that nuclear and ballistic missile tests are prohibited under more than 10 U.N. Security Council resolutions, so the mere utterance of abstinence from illicit, forbidden activities is no concession at all,” he said.
White House spokesman Raj Shah told ABC News: “The president has not adopted some of the failed policies we’ve seen over the last several decades, which is negotiations and concessions out of the gate from the United States. Our policy is pressure. It’s pressure from our partners and allies around the world, pressure from the United Nations, pressure through China.”
Shah offered no commitment that Trump would raise the issue with Kim of releasing three Americans currently held by North Korea.
In the past, Trump has derided the possibility of direct talks with North Korea, in October telling Secretary of State Rex Tillerson he was “wasting his time” considering the possibility of negotiations.
But on Saturday Trump noted the historical significance of him accepting the North Korean leader’s offer to meet.
“Well, they say, well, [former President Barack] Obama could have done that. Trust me, he wouldn’t have done it. By the way, neither would [former President George W.] Bush or [former President Bill] Clinton,” Trump said. “Anybody could have done it. Obama could have done it. Obama had his chance.”
Asked what Trump could accomplish by being nice to Kim, Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told CNN on Sunday, “Not a whole lot.”
A Democratic opponent of Trump, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, said on NBC, “I want to see our president succeed, because if he succeeds, America succeeds. The world is safer. But I am very worried that they’re going to take advantage of him.”
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