North Korea on Monday slammed South Korea, Japan and even its backer China for backing the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula during a summit in Seoul.
North Korea’s rhetoric was business as usual with South Korea and Japan, but was unusually harsh toward China, which went out of its way to avoid criticizing the North Korean regime during the summit.
China Not too pushy There was more emphasis on denuclearization at this weekend’s summit than at a similar event held in Chengdu, China, in 2019. The tripartites issued a statement on Monday saying disarmament and stability on the Korean Peninsula was important to all three countries but avoided using language from the 2019 joint statement calling for the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula.
“We reiterated our respective positions on regional peace and stability, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and the abduction issue. We agreed to continue to make positive efforts toward a political resolution of the Korean Peninsula issue,” the new statement said.
“Abduction” refers to North Korea’s Horrible policy North Korea is accused of abducting Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the abductees were later returned to Japan, but the Japanese government has long demanded a full account of their fate. North Korea has periodically claimed it was “investigating” the matter, but without any results.
Shigeru Yokota (bottom left) wipes away tears with his wife Sakie (right) during a news conference in Tokyo in September 2002 after being informed that their daughter Megumi, who was abducted by North Korea in the 1970s, had died. (Kyodo News via The Associated Press)
Shortly before the trilateral statement was released, Japan said North Korea had notified it that it planned to “launch a satellite” by June 4. The North Korean satellite launch is widely seen as an illegal test of ballistic missile technology.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yun Seok-yeo called on North Korea to cancel the satellite launch at their summit, but Chinese Premier Li Qiang avoided commenting on the matter.
South Korea and Japan also managed to include language in the joint statement declaring all three countries’ commitment to “the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and to the rule of law and an international order based on international law.”
China, a communist autocracy, clearly feels no obligation to respect these principles, and the words were likely intended as a criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which China staunchly refuses to condemn.
Premier Li clearly appreciated the tripartite summit’s commitment to economic cooperation, particularly on the issue of the global economy. supply chain China is worried about losing out to the post-pandemic global economy.”risk avoidance“Movement” — a movement to get South Korea and Japan to insert that wording.
Meanwhile, North Korea erupted in violence on Monday morning. Destroy It condemned the tripartite summit as a “serious political provocation,” an “unforgivable insult” and a “declaration of war against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” as the North Korean regime calls itself.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry denounced even the weakening of the call for denuclearization in the 2024 summit statement as an “infringement” of North Korea’s sovereignty and an insult to the “united will of the people of the entire Korean peninsula.”
There were also some troubles at the summit that were unrelated to North Korea. Prime Minister Kishida said China Intimidating military training Events occurring across Taiwan following the inauguration of Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te last week.
Li responded coldly, saying that interfering in China’s handling of the Taiwan issue would be crossing a “red line” for Beijing. There was no mention of Taiwan in the tripartite statement released on Monday.
Japan and China have also sparred over China’s ban on imports of Japanese seafood. Imposed After Japan begins releasing wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the summer of 2023.
China’s purchases of Japanese seafood fell After the ban was announced, the number of cases fell to its lowest since the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic in China. Said The country was due to review the ban at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in November, but the ban remains in place.
This aerial photo shows the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, northern Japan, shortly after Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. began releasing the first batches of radioactive treated water into the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 24, 2023. (Via The Associated Press, File)
At the tripartite summit in Seoul, Foreign Minister Kishida again urged Premier Li to lift the ban, but Premier Li said China still believes the wastewater released from Fukushima “may be nuclear contaminated.” Premier Li called on Japan to ensure that international organizations “seriously fulfill their responsibilities and obligations” to the world regarding the Fukushima issue. Supported Japan’s wastewater discharge plan is safe and necessary.
of South China Morning Post (South Carolina State University) Monday I doubted This issue is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, as Japan is unwilling to make significant concessions on other issues that would allow China to back down from its previous statements on the seafood issue without appearing weak.
On the other hand, Japan feels that giving in to some of China’s unreasonable demands will make it appear weak, and that even if Japan does give in, China will simply come up with new unreasonable demands.
“We don’t sense any will from the Chinese side to make progress on the treated water issue,” a Japanese official said gloomily. SCMP.
