China’s influence will be key to denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula

High-level meetings including those between the leaders of many of the countries concerned offer cause for hope on an issue that threatens the stability of the region and the world

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A news programme shows file footage of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Seoul Railway Station on April 21, 2018. North Korea said Saturday it has suspended nuclear and long-range missile tests and plans to close its nuclear test site. Photo: AP Photo

Published: 5:03am, 23 Apr 2018Updated: 5:03am, 23 Apr 2018

No word is more important for the upcoming summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his counterparts from the United States and South Korea, Donald Trump and Moon Jae-in, than “denuclearisation”.

It is what Kim has promised and all countries involved, China included, want. Without doubt, it featured during the secret Easter trip to Pyongyang by CIA director and nominee for US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to set the stage for the talks, and it surely came up when top Chinese diplomat Song Tao visited as the head of an art troupe to further a warming of ties with his nation.

But what it means to those involved has yet to be articulated and until there is a definition, there can be no certainty for the hoped-for peace process.

China is eager that the talks, between Kim and Moon at the Korean truce village of Panmunjom on Friday, and the North’s leader and Trump at a location to be determined in either late May or June, will go smoothly.

Kim’s thawing of chilly relations with Beijing with a landmark summit with President Xi Jinping last month and Song’s reciprocal visit, which included talks and a banquet, have revealed Pyongyang’s willingness to seek change.

The friendly atmosphere and the positive direction gives Kim an ally and assurances for the upcoming negotiations. He needs such backing; Trump’s unpredictability was apparent on Wednesday, with him saying that if the talks were not fruitful, he would “walk out”, despite earlier contending that good relations had been forged by Pompeo.

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