North’s wish to thaw ties met with caution
Published: 12 Oct. 2009, 00:46
Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak, left, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao, center, and Japan’s Premier Yukio Hatoyama, right, hold a joint news conference Saturday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, after they had a trilateral summit meeting. [YONHAP]
“North Korea wants to improve ties not only with the United States but also South Korea and Japan,” said the Chinese leader at a joint press conference after meeting with President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in Beijing.
Kim also asked Wen to deliver his “willingness” for improved relations between the North and the South to Lee, which the Chinese prime minister did at separate meeting with Lee in the afternoon, according to Kim Eun-hye, Blue House spokeswoman, in a press briefing. In response, Lee was quoted as saying, “I can meet [Kim Jong-il] at any time if North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons program.”
Wen was in Pyongyang from last Sunday to Tuesday for talks with Kim, the first visit by a Chinese premier to North Korea in 18 years. He reportedly spent 10 hours with Kim and the longest conversation lasted four hours.
China’s Xinhua News Agency reported last week that Kim Jong-il had informed Wen that North Korea was “willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks,” depending on the progress in anticipated discussions with the United States.
At the second trilateral summit between Korea, China and Japan held outside of the annual regional summit hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the three leaders agreed to work together for an early restart to the six-party talks, releasing a joint statement commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Northeastern neighbors’ cooperation.
The first freestanding summit was held last December in Fukuoka, Japan. The first-ever three-way talks between the nations were held in 1999 on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit. “We will make joint efforts with other parties for an early resumption of the six-party talks, so as to safeguard peace and stability in Northeast Asia, and thereby build an Asia of peace, harmony, openness and prosperity,” the statement said.
Lee said in the joint press conference, “Now is a good time for North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions, and there will be good results if we can offer a proposal for a one-step solution of the nuclear issue and conditions for such a deal.” North Korea walked away from the talks aimed at ending its nuclear ambition last December and said in April that the six-nation talks between the two Koreas, China, Japan, the United States and Russia were no longer viable.
The three leaders, whose countries accounted for 16 percent of the global gross domestic product last year, vowed at the summit to seek the “Grand Bargain” proposal that Lee had made in the United States last month. Under the plan, North Korea would dismantle the key parts of its nuclear arms program in exchange for security assurances and economic aid, the end of sanctions and months of tension sparked by the nuclear test in May.
“Impending issues [for Japan] not only include North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles but also the abduction [of Japanese by the North],” said Hatoyama, who took office last month. “Japan intends to resolve those issues comprehensively and this has something to do with Lee’s Grand Bargain.”
The leaders also pledged to actively respond to other global issues. “We will strengthen communication and consultation on regional and international affairs such as climate change, financial risks, energy security, public health, natural disasters, terrorism, arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, and UN reform,” they said in the statement.
They also promised to help enact a new climate-change accord in December in Copenhagen, which is aimed at replacing the Kyoto Protocol. Hatoyama has set climate change as a focus of his administration, vowing to cut carbon emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. They also vowed to cooperate for the success of the fifth G-20 summit to be hosted by Korea in November next year.
According to a key official at the Blue House, the three leaders agreed that the countries may start discussing goods that require lower barriers for trading through a trilateral free trade agreement, “although the three countries have a different stance on an FTA.”
On the sidelines of the bilateral talks between Lee and Wen, the neighboring nations signed an agreement on economic cooperation that calls for doubling their annual bilateral trade to $300 billion by 2015.
The next trilateral summit will be held in Korea next year. The fourth foreign ministers’ meeting in Korea, the sixth ministerial meeting in China and the fourth friendly youth exchange meeting in China are also scheduled next year.
By Seo Ji-eun [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)