Chinese foreign minister reconfirms significance of Singapore joint statement

In their joint statement in Singapore, North Korea and the US agreed to set up a permanent peace regime

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (provided by the Chinese Foreign Ministry)

After South Korea, the US, and Japan agreed on the need to quickly resume North Korea-US talks, the Chinese have also reiterated the importance of the joint statement made by the leaders of the US and North Korea during their 2018 summit in Singapore. That statement centered on “denuclearization through peace,” or in other words achieving denuclearization by setting up a peace regime.

“We need to continue working for a political solution to the Korean Peninsula issue. South Korea and China have reconfirmed that the joint statement released during the North Korea-US summit in Singapore in 2018 is of major significance,” Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Monday in an interview with China’s state-run Xinhua News. Wang was summarizing bilateral meetings with South Korea and four countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in late March and early April.

“The key to resolving Korean Peninsula issues is resolving the military pressure and threats that North Korea has long faced. Denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and building a peace regime should be pursued simultaneously and in parallel,” Wang said.

In their joint statement in Singapore, North Korea and the US agreed to build confidence by resetting their relationship, to set up a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, and to use that to reach the milestone of denuclearizing the peninsula.

But the Trump administration reverted to the failed approach of the past with “peace through denuclearization,” or in other words treating denuclearization as a prerequisite for a peace regime, causing talks with the North to break down.

Regarding US-China relations, Wang stuck to the same hardline stance that was evident in high-level strategic talks that the two countries held in Alaska last month.

“We welcome cooperation [with the US], we will not avoid fair competition, and should they want a confrontation, we will engage in it calmly and without fear. China will never accept any country claiming superiority to other countries,” Wang said.

Concerning the bloody crackdown on protesters by pro-coup military forces in Myanmar, Wang said, “All parties should exercise restraint to avoid bloodshed.”

But Wang also reiterated China’s current position of interference in the internal affairs of other countries. “We must prevent the conflict from escalating through the involvement of outside forces.”

By Jung In-hwan, Beijing correspondent

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