China's strategy in Korean peninsula

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
If there was ever any doubt that the US has absolutely no Korean interests in mind...

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South Korea says Pompeo complained about inter-Korean military pact

U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo has expressed "discontent" with an inter-Korean military pact reached during last month's summit, South Korea's foreign minister said on Wednesday, in a rare disclosure of signs of disagreement with its U.S. ally.

The two Koreas agreed to halt military drills, set up a no-fly zone near the border and gradually remove landmines and guard posts within the Demilitarised Zone, among other steps.
 

JsCh

Junior Member
Do approval means "permission" in English? The S. Korean people are wondering...

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(LEAD) Trump's wording triggers controversy in S. Korea
2018/10/11 16:49
(ATTN: UPDATES with N. Korea's talks with China, Russia in last 6 paras; ADDS photo)

By Lee Chi-dong

SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Yonhap) -- A controversy has erupted in South Korea over U.S. President Donald Trump's choice of words in a comment regarding South Korea's sanctions on North Korea.

Trump was responding to a reporter's question about reports from Seoul that South Korea is considering lifting some sanctions against North Korea.

"Well, they won't do it without our approval. They do nothing without our approval," he said at the White House on Wednesday (local time), according to a transcript.

The reporter was apparently referring to South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha's remarks a day earlier that her government is reviewing whether to lift the bilateral sanctions that were put in place to punish the North for a deadly torpedo attack on a South Korean naval ship in 2010.

At a parliamentary session in Seoul, Kang later watered down her statement, saying there are no full-fledged moves under way to remove the May 24 Measures.

Nonetheless, Trump's use of the word "approval" raised the eyebrows of Koreans for its negative connotations in country-to-country relations.

PYH2018101100750034000_P2.jpg

This Reuters photo shows President Donald Trump answering a reporter's qustion at the White House on Oct. 10, 2018 (Yonhap)

Formally, South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs was guarded in response.

"I think it's not appropriate to comment on President Trump's remarks," the ministry's spokesman, Noh Kyu-duk, said at a press briefing.

Speaking privately, however, a ministry official questioned if Trump had been aware of the overall context of Kang's comments.

"He seems to have repeated his basic position on sanctions on North Korea," rather than specifically on the May 24 Measures, he said.

There's a view, the official added, that the president was also emphasizing the importance of consultations between the allies.

Even so, for many people here whose mother language is not English, Trump's use of the word "approval" is controversial. They regarded it being tantamount to "permission," which suggests an unequal relationship.

An English native speaker working in Seoul pointed out that there may be various ways to interpret the wording.

"Approval is more neutral in meaning. Trump probably means something closer to 'agreement' given friendly relations between the two sides, but the U.S. President doesn't always speak precisely," he said.

The ministry's spokesman, reaffirmed Seoul's commitment to maintaining sanctions on Pyongyang until there's an "assurance" of its complete denuclearization.

"Now that progress is needed in denuclearization in order to ease the sanctions, (we) will closely consult with the U.S. and other relevant countries in accordance with progress in denuclearization," Noh said.

PYH2018040316040001300_P2.jpg

Noh Kyu-duk, spokesman for South Korea's foreign ministry holds a press briefing in this file photo. (Yonhap)

In Moscow, senior diplomats of North Korea, China and Russia had talks and called on the U.N. Security Council to start work to "revise" sanctions.

The North's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui joined the trilateral session this week with her Chinese and Russian counterparts: Kong Xuanyou and Igor Morgulov.

They said in a join communique that the council "should start in due time revising the sanctions against the DPRK." The DPRK is the abbreviation of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Noh said the move represents close communication among the three sides over the security conditions in Korea.

"The government takes note of consultations among North Korea, China and Russia, which are major parties concerned regarding the Korean Peninsula issue," he said.

He voiced hope that such discussions will make constructive contributions to the complete denuclearization of the peninsula and the establishment of permanent peace.

[email protected]

(END)

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Do approval means "permission" in English? The S. Korean people are wondering...

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Maybe this would help...

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It's convenient to dismiss kernels of truth about intentions and the big picture with the usual propaganda and excuses i.e. blame it on a speaker's personal traits or interests. Right for the South Koreans to wonder in conjunction with the following earlier story. Prolonging conflict between the Koreas plays into US greed to continue wielding undue, I would say colonial, influence over SK and maintain a military presence there for ulterior motives.

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OCTOBER 5, 2018 / 3:48 PM / 6 DAYS AGO
War-end declaration 'slippery slope' for U.S. Korea presence: U.N. Command general
David Brunnstrom
3 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A declaration to end the 1950-53 Korea War could be a “slippery slope” to questioning the need for the U.S. troop presence in South Korea, the deputy head of the U.N. Command overseeing the Korean armistice said on Friday, ahead of new talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

FILE PHOTO: Canadian Lieutenant General Wayne Eyre, deputy commander of the United Nations Command in South Korea, speaks during a news conference before a repatriation ceremony for remains transferred by North Korea, at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea August 1, 2018. Jung Yeon-je/Pool via REUTERS

Canadian Lieutenant-General Wayne Eyre said North Korea’s push for such a declaration could be a ploy to divide the U.S.-South Korea alliance and secure the withdrawal of the 28,500 U.S. troops based in the South.

“You have to question why North Korea is pushing so hard for that end-of-war declaration,” he told an event at Washington’s Carnegie Institute for International Peace.

“The optimistic would say that he (North Korean leader Kim Jong Un) needs it for a domestic audience so he can change his ways and have a new approach; the pessimist would say it’s another way to split the allies apart.”

While saying that the current mood of detente and negotiation had given hope for a process “moving forward towards a lasting peace” on the Korean peninsula, Eyre said the North Koreans were “experts at separating allies.”

“So what could an end-of-war declaration mean? Even if there is no legal basis for it, emotionally people would start to question the presence and the continued existence of the United Nations Command,” he said.

“And it’s a slippery slope then to question the presence of U.S. forces on the peninsula.”

Eyre spoke as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo headed for his fourth visit this year to North Korea, seeking to break an impasse in denuclearization talks and clear the way for a second summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump. Pompeo is due in Pyongyang on Sunday local time, or Saturday U.S. East Coast time, after a stop in Japan.

North Korea had long sought a formal end to the Korean War to replace the armistice that stopped the fighting but left it and the U.S.-led U.N. Command still technically at war.

At a June 12 summit between Trump and Kim in Singapore, the U.S. leader pledged security guarantees for North Korea if it abandoned nuclear weapons that potentially threaten the United States.

Trump has said he wants “at some point” to bring back U.S. troops from Korea..

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is seeking an end-of-war declaration by the year-end, arguing it would encourage North Korea to denuclearize. Washington has argued that Pyongyang must give up its nuclear weapons first.
 
related to China through the source of the news
2018-12-27 18:21 GMT+8
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:
DPRK high official admits farming failures amid food shortages

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has acknowledged "drawbacks" in its agricultural sector this year, echoing UN reports of declining crop yields in a country that remains heavily reliant on food imports and aid.

Agricultural production is chronically poor in the DPRK, which has periodically been hit by famine, with hundreds of thousands dying — some estimates say millions — in the mid-1990s.

Premier of the government cabinet, Pak Pong Ju, referred to "drawbacks made by some farms and units in the past" at the 4th National Meeting of Activists in Agricultural Field that took place in Pyongyang this week, state media said on Thursday.

"He said that they failed to conduct seed production and management in a responsible way and also fell short of doing proper strain distribution," Pak was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in an English-language report.

He "underscored the need to attain the goal of grain production" set out in a five-year development plan that wraps up in 2020.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said this month that the DPRK would need to import 641,000 tonnes of food in the coming year. The figure is up from 456,000 tonnes this year when it bought 390,000 tonnes and received 66,000 tonnes in food aid.

There was a widespread lack of access to food in the DPRK, it said. The DPRK was one of 40 countries — 31 of them in Africa — identified by the FAO as in need of external assistance for food. UN agencies estimate that 10.3 million people in the DPRK need humanitarian assistance.

David Beasley, the head of the UN's World Food Program, said in May that there was undoubtedly a hunger problem in the DPRK but it was not on the scale of the 1990s famine.
 
now I read
Kim Jong Un visits China
Xinhua| 2019-01-08 07:01:14
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At the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chinese president, Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is visiting China, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Kim is visiting China from Jan. 7 to 10, said the spokesperson of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee in Beijing.
 

localizer

Colonel
Registered Member
U ain't gonna have anything without a roundtable consisting of: US, China, SK, Japan, Russia, NK. Ofc the ones making the actual decisions will be China and US (and perhaps Russia)
 
now I read
13:01, 27-Feb-2019
China's behind-the-scenes role in the Hanoi Summit
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On Tuesday morning DPRK leader Kim Jong Un's official train arrived in Vietnam following a two-day-long journey from Pyongyang. He will meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday..

While it should be clear that this event is strictly an engagement between the DPRK and the United States, something China is very careful not to intrude upon, this does not mean that it does not have a role to play.

Instead of sitting on the sidelines, Beijing's influence remains crucial in moving forward on any agreement which may emerge.

Taking a cautious and pragmatic approach, Beijing will ensure that Washington's goals are not entirely centered on sanctions. At the same time, it is crucial to provide Kim Jong Un with options to consider to buffer his own interests in future negotiations with the United States.

Although China's considerations and methods concerning the DPRK may differ from those of the United States, it is important not to underestimate Beijing's fundamental interest in promoting Pyongyang's denuclearization process.

Several analysts have repeatedly accused China of deliberately ignoring or skirting United Nations sanctions concerning the DPRK over the years.

Although there is little evidence to support such a claim, it is fair to say that, fearing regional instability and pushing the country towards collapse, China has been wary of placing serious and sustained pressure on DPRK.

Rather than dismissing sanctions entirely, it has adjusted its scope in accordance with its neighbors' behavior and the fundamental attitude of the United States towards it. From 2016, China's stance on DPRK largely switched from flexibility to growing assertiveness, with a scathing Xinhua editorial stating, "A nuclear DPRK has no future."

By 2017, the situation became untenable. Upholding the norms of non-proliferation, China may have held back on America's more brutal demands, such as a request for a total fuel embargo. Nevertheless, it was serious in fulfilling UN resolutions with the view of putting pressure on DPRK to negotiate its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

These events led to a drift between the two nations. Its annual trade and commerce with DPRK plummeted, though the relationship would later rekindle.

By 2019, tensions eased and a diplomatic process is well underway. Chinese President Xi Jinping and DPRK leader Kim Jong Un have met on numerous occasions.

However, China has not re-visited the question of sanctions on DPRK. There are some anecdotal signs that some smaller measures have been enacted, however, most data and signs at the border indicate that major commerce, such as mineral imports from DPRK, have not resumed.

Beijing understands and respects that concessions cannot be granted unless the DPRK agrees to make meaningful progress on denuclearization.

It would not be in China's interest to violate those boundaries, not in terms of regional stability nor in terms of its own relationship with the United States, which is experiencing its own difficulties.

In view of this, China will carefully follow the upcoming summit in Hanoi. In the aftermath, it may offer DPRK its own economic incentives and sanction relief.

At the same time, however, continued diplomatic support from China to the DPRK will continue and ultimately in the view of concessions, enhance. As much as China desires Pyongyang's denuclearization, it is much less dogmatic than the United States in how they achieve such results.

This allows Kim to tread carefully with Washington in negotiations, buffering him against more unilateral and unrealistic demands. Beijing will also offer support to Seoul, giving its blessing to inter-Korean engagement, to the resumption of inter-Korean projects and Moon Jae-in 's other objectives.

All in all, rather than being a nuisance, China's role in the outcome of the summit is one that will add flexibility, stability and balance to the outcome.

Far from being an obstacle, Beijing has in fact been able to facilitate both the desires of Pyongyang and the United States throughout this entire saga. Rather than enabling the DPRK's nuclear ambitions, it has drawn clear red-lines, enforced them and pushed Kim to negotiate.
 
now I read
Xi’s visit to North Korea comes at a crucial juncture
Source:Global Times Published: 2019/6/18 22:33:40
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Editor's Note:

Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit
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on Thursday and Friday. How will the visit influence dynamics on the
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and in Northeast Asia? The Global Times talked with two Chinese experts on the issue.

Lü Chao, a research fellow on North Korea with the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences

President Xi's upcoming visit to North Korea is a formal state visit and also a return trip to North Korean Leader
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's visit to China. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and North Korea - a significant year for both countries.

Xi's visit will further improve the traditional friendship between China and North Korea, promote interaction among their people, and in particular, increase interaction between the Communist Party of China and the Workers' Party of Korea - the ruling parties in the two countries.

China is playing an important role as a stabilizer in Northeast Asia. Xi's visit is anticipated to promote peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and thus stabilize the situation in the region. China has been attaching importance to the situation on the Korean Peninsula, as it is directly related to China's peripheral security. The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue has been under international spotlight.

Before the upcoming
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summit in Osaka, Japan, Xi's visit to North Korea will allow the two countries to carry out better strategic communication, which is conducive to better coordination among all sides involved in the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

In addition to showing the importance of traditional friendship between China and North Korea, the agenda of Xi's visit also shows that China, as a major responsible power, is willing to properly deal with the concerns of all sides and better promote peaceful solution of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit South Korea in late June, which shows that the US wants to further strengthen its influence on the Korean Peninsula and achieve its stated objectives on the nuclear issue.

China and the US have relatively consistent goals for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. There is room for the two countries to cooperate to maintain peace on the peninsula, although they have differences on implementation of denuclearization and in judging the situation in Northeast Asia.

China encourages North Korea and the US to take negotiations forward and work to alleviate the crisis on the peninsula.

Da Zhigang, director and research fellow of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences and chief expert at Northeast Asian Strategic Studies Institute

October 6, 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of China and North Korea's diplomatic ties. No matter how skeptical foreign media outlets are, China will not change its support for socialist North Korea and friendship for the North Korean people.

Some foreign media outlets speculated the purpose of this visit as it will take place before the G20 summit. However, it ignored the fact that the visit will benefit regional cooperation and send signals that help ease the situation on the peninsula.
 
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