[Herald Economy = Reporter Seo Ji-yeon] Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin made their stance against sanctions and pressure on North Korea official in a joint statement, emphasizing the maintenance of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. However, as the mention of North Korea's denuclearization was excluded, a subtle temperature difference was also revealed from the results of the recent summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and President Xi.
According to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency on the 21st, President Xi and President Putin adopted a "joint statement on strengthening full-scale strategic cooperation and deepening friendly and cooperative relations" after the Beijing People's Great Hall summit the day before.
In a joint statement, the leaders of the two countries said, "It is in the common interest of all countries and the international community in Northeast Asia to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and promote political solutions to regional problems."
China and Russia also stressed, "We oppose threatening North Korea's security by means of diplomatic isolation, economic sanctions, and armed pressure."
Related countries should "stop raising tensions in the region and stimulating arms competition," he said. "We need to stop the abuse of political means and take practical measures to eliminate the risk of war on the Korean Peninsula."
The two countries said that considering the geopolitical reality, each country should balance concerns in a political and diplomatic way on the basis of respecting mutual sovereignty.
He added that he will continue close communication and cooperation in the future, play a constructive role in political resolution of the Korean Peninsula issue, establishing a peace regime, and maintaining long-term stability in Northeast Asia.
The joint statement is interpreted as a message aimed at the recent moves by the U.S., South Korea and Japan to strengthen cooperation with North Korea and the U.S. to strengthen extended deterrence. In particular, given that the statement came right after criticizing the U.S. and Israel's military actions against Iran, analysts say that China and Russia have made clear their stance against the U.S. pressure on the Korean Peninsula.
However, the joint statement did not include expressions related to North Korea's denuclearization.
This is different from the recent White House announcement that "the leaders of the two countries have confirmed their joint goal of denuclearizing North Korea" after the summit between President Trump and President Xi in Beijing.
Markets and diplomats also analyze that China maintains the principle of denuclearization in terms of managing relations with the United States, but in actual approaches to North Korea, it is focusing on stabilizing the North Korean regime and easing sanctions along with Russia.
Meanwhile, the possibility of President Xi visiting North Korea as soon as next week is also being discussed.
A senior government official told Yonhap News that "there is intelligence that Xi Jinping is going to North Korea soon," and the U.S. weekly Time also quoted an anonymous source as saying that Xi will visit North Korea as early as next week.
Seo Ji-yeon, sjy@heraldcorp.com
For a stable inter-Korean situation, cooperation with China seems increasingly important at this moment.
Fortunately, our country does not have poor relations with China or Russia, so this is a good opportunity to actively bring North Korea to the table for dialogue together.
Let’s work to ease these tiresome geopolitical risks.
