The denuclearization of North Korea, a common goal of the international community, was apparently not a topic of discussion at the recent Beijing-Pyongyang summit.<\/p>\n
Rather than only use its relationship with North Korea for its own intentions, China must fulfill its role for peace and stability in the region.<\/p>\n
Sixty-five years have passed since the two nations signed a treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual support that pledged military support during war.<\/p>\n
According to the announcement by both countries, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to expand cooperation in a wide range of areas.<\/p>\n
Xi said strengthening the bilateral relationship would aggressively contribute to peace and development in the region and the world, but the statement said nothing about denuclearization.<\/p>\n
Facing economic sanctions, North Korea considers China to be its largest supporter, but the relationship has not always been smooth.<\/p>\n
The ties cooled for a while when North Korea deepened its military cooperation with Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
But relations have recently been restored, and Xi\u2019s visit to North Korea follows Kim\u2019s trip to China last September.<\/p>\n
North Korea considers its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile development to be the lifeline for maintaining the regime.<\/p>\n
The country possesses an estimated 60 nuclear warheads. And in early June, Kim visited a new nuclear materials manufacturing plant.<\/p>\n
The threat from North Korea extends beyond East Asia.<\/p>\n
In a statement dated June 6, Kim\u2019s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, a senior official of the Workers\u2019 Party of Korea, said North Korea would never retreat from its status as a nuclear possessing nation.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s economic support provided in exchange for North Korea supplying ammunition and soldiers opened holes in the economic sanction net that had been in place.<\/p>\n
Although Pyongyang has repeatedly launched ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, the international community has not found a unified response.<\/p>\n
The war in the Middle East has weakened international interest and monitoring of North Korea\u2019s nuclear weapons development.<\/p>\n
After the May summit in Beijing between U.S. President Donald Trump and Xi, the U.S. side said the two nations reconfirmed denuclearization of North Korea as a common goal.<\/p>\n
But Beijing continues to remain silent on that point.<\/p>\n
The statement issued after Xi\u2019s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin stated the two nations opposed any threat to North Korea\u2019s safety and made no mention of Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
China itself is rapidly increasing its nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n
Beijing cannot be allowed to close its eyes to Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear weapons development for its own short-term benefit, such as for confronting the United States and maintaining its influence over North Korea.<\/p>\n
Six-party talks on North Korea\u2019s denuclearization that also involved Japan, the United States, South Korea, China and Russia led to a joint declaration in 2005 when Beijing served as chair.<\/p>\n
In exchange for economic support, North Korea pledged to give up its nuclear weapons and nuclear development program.<\/p>\n
China should still hold the view that North Korea possessing nuclear weapons is undesirable.<\/p>\n
–The Asahi Shimbun, June 10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The denuclearization of North Korea, a common goal of the international community, was apparently not a topic of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7255,17458,890,31,154,34,2785],"class_list":["post-48039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-north-korea","tag-asahi-shimbun","tag-editorial","tag-japan","tag-korea","tag-news","tag-north-korea","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}