Seoul, June 8 (EFE).- The South Korean president, Lee Jae-myung, urged this Monday to maintain the goal of the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula after the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, avoided the issue in an editorial published in a North Korean media on the occasion of his visit from today until Tuesday to Pyongyang.
“Let us not abandon the goal of denuclearization,” Lee said during a press conference on the occasion of his first year in office, before clarifying that this goal cannot be achieved in the short term.
First, a “peaceful coexistence” with North Korea must be sought, he said, and for the hermetic regime to stop expanding its nuclear arsenal and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Lee also warned that if the goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is abandoned, a domino effect could be unleashed where other countries in the region, such as Japan, would also be encouraged to obtain a nuclear arsenal.
Lee’s statements come after the North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun published an editorial by Xi on Monday, in which the Chinese president noted that the friendship between Beijing and Pyongyang “will last forever” and called for strengthening bilateral coordination without mentioning denuclearization.
The Chinese president’s omission comes just days after Washington said Xi agreed to the goal of denuclearizing North Korea at his recent summit with his American counterpart, Donald Trump.
Xi was received this Monday in North Korea by the leader of the secretive country, Kim Jong-un, upon landing in Pyongyang for his first visit since 2019.
The trip is interpreted as an attempt by Beijing to reaffirm its influence over Pyongyang and reactivate a relationship that, despite its historical alliance, has gone through phases of cooling in the last decade due to North Korean nuclear tests and the closer ties of China with South Korea, and of North Korea with Russia. EFE
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