Top envoy says China policy is Korea's own, not the West's

Foreign Minister Park Jin speaks with the press at the ministry headquarters in Seoul on Monday. [YONHAP]

Korea will have its own policy on its neighbor, China, based on mutual respect and trust, said Foreign Minister Park Jin on Monday -- not driven by the West.

“It’s not about tailoring our policies to the West’s,” Park told the press at the ministry headquarters in Seoul on Monday, in response to a question about the Yoon Suk-yeol government’s policy toward China.

“I could only imagine our relationship developing further when China respects Korea and when Korea understands where China is coming from,” Park said, recalling a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministerial summit in Indonesia last Thursday.

In that meeting, Wang mentioned “rampant unilateral acts and deluging power politics and bullying,” according to China’s Foreign Ministry, likely alluding to the recent NATO summit in Madrid and U.S.-led initiatives in the region such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework established in May.

He was quoted by the ministry to have said that it is important to prevent “the resurgence of the Cold War mentality in the region” and avoid “major power confrontation and bloc politics.”

Park, in response, was cited by his ministry to have expressed his hopes that the Korea-China relations would “develop based on the universal values and norms,” so that the two nations can contribute together to regional peace and prosperity.

In the press conference Monday, Park stressed the importance of Korea’s trust-based ties with China, especially in the context of denuclearization of North Korea.

“Since North Korea is unlikely to denuclearize on its own, we should create an environment that leads North Korea to choose denuclearization,” Park said. “We will use options such as deterrence, sanctions, pressure and dialogue, in a balanced manner, for that goal. This is something that we have discussed in recent Korea-U.S.-Japan trilateral summits, and for which we have also asked China and Russia to play a constructive role.”

Both China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-led resolution at the UN to place additional sanctions on the North in May following its repeated ballistic missile launches.

Pyongyang was estimated to have completed weeks ago its preparations for another nuclear test, which would be its seventh.

But the Chinese Communist Party is having its 20th National Congress in the autumn, and Pyongyang may want to avoid causing Beijing, its major economic and political ally, embarrassment.

In a show of force against the threat, Washington and Seoul ramped up security and defense exercises recently, bringing American stealth warplanes into Korea for the first time in five years in the form of six F-35A fighter jets.

“The international resolve to prevent further North Korean military provocations is stronger than the North’s resolve to continue its development of its nuclear program,” Park said on Monday.

“We are hoping to prevent further provocations from the North and encourage the North to return to diplomacy and the negotiation table.”

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]