Xi, Kim mum on nuclear issue in summit talks
Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed on Tuesday to carry forward traditional friendship from generation to generation, Chinese state-run media said, while North Korean reports on the summit talks the previous day made no mention of Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
Before concluding his two-day trip to North Korea, his first since 2019, Xi paid tribute at the Sino-North Korean friendship tower, built in memory of Chinese soldiers who fought in the 1950-53 Korean War, accompanied by Kim.
The two countries, which fought together in the war against US-led UN forces, have long described their relationship as that of “blood brothers.”
A Chinese foreign ministry statement on the Xi-Kim meeting released on Monday also made no mention of Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
Shared goal
Beijing has recently refrained from criticizing Pyongyang over its nuclear program, while the White House said Xi and US President Donald Trump reaffirmed their shared goal of denuclearizing North Korea during talks in Beijing in mid-May.
The China-North Korea Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, signed in 1961, includes provisions guaranteeing immediate military and other support in the event of an armed attack on either nation.
Park Jong-chol, a politics professor at South Korea’s Gyeongsang National University, said he believes that China’s stance of seeking North Korean denuclearization remains unchanged and that the two leaders may have reached a new agreement on the nuclear issue.
Xi and Kim may have agreed that China would not object to North Korean nuclear weapons already produced and that Pyongyang would freeze production of its nuclear arsenal, Park said, stressing the need to continue monitoring the situation.
