Chinese envoy backs Park’s NK approach

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun said Friday he supported President-elect Park Geun-hye’s “trust building” approach to Pyongyang, calling it a “very good idea.”

“The chronic disease with regard to issues of the Korean Peninsula is a lack of trust,” Zhang said during a forum for businesspeople. “When you are trying to cure a wound, you have to address the underlying cause.”  China’s special envoy met with Park, Thursday.

Chinese support is said to be an important element to any effort by Seoul to reengage Pyongyang, given Beijing’s close economic and political ties with the impoverished regime.

During their talks, Park reiterated her stance that while further advancement of the north’s nuclear weapons program was unacceptable, she remains open to incrementally improving relations through dialogue in a bid to later touch on sensitive security issues. 

Zhang delivered a letter from incoming President Xi Jinping as well as an invitation from Xi to visit Beijing.

While many analysts expect that China will maintain its protective stance toward the North, fearing a disruptive flow of refugees across its borders if instability occurs, they also say the incoming generation of Chinese leaders is better informed about both Koreas. 

The two sides have clashed over how to handle the North’s provocative behavior, with Beijing often protecting its ally from the introduction of new sanctions at the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), where it is a permanent member. Seoul is again pushing to punish the North at the UNSC following its Dec. 12 long-range rocket launch, a measure Beijing has reportedly been reluctant to accept. 

Zhang also called for cooperation among Korea, China and Japan, including the negotiation of a trilateral free trade agreement, saying the three should “ride in the same boat” in order to overcome difficulties. 

But he warned that the onus was on Tokyo to repair relations. China and Japan are locked in a rancorous territorial dispute over an archipelago in the East China Sea that has deteriorated political and economic ties between the two.

“If Japan walks a dangerous path, it will significantly hurt cooperation,” Zhang said, urging Tokyo to “walk a path of peaceful development.”

Korea is also concerned that its debate over the Seoul-controlled Dokdo Islets will hamper bilateral relations. Viewing Tokyo’s claim over the island as a remnant of its imperialist past, Park said Dokdo was not to be negotiated over and called for Japan to squarely face up to its history. <The Korea Times/Kim Young-jin>