China may take bigger role as ‘guarantor and mediator’ after Trump-Kim nuclear talks
Beijing will help both sides keep their promises on expected ‘symbolic deals’ made in Singapore, according to Chinese analysts
Beijing is expected to take a bigger role in Korean peninsula negotiations after US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meet on Tuesday – helping the two sides to push forward any deals they make.
The role would be as a “guarantor”, Chinese analysts say, not just of progress on the denuclearisation Washington is seeking, but also to ensure what Kim wants most: the safety of his regime.
Reflecting the stakes in play in the negotiations, a leading US politician has called for lawmakers there to endorse the use of military force against North Korea as a precautionary measure in case the Singapore summit fails to reach a diplomatic agreement of some kind.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told ABC News on Sunday, that “Donald Trump is not going to capitulate, so there’s really only two options – peace or war.”
The latest indication of Beijing’s influence over Pyongyang came on Sunday, when Kim arrived in Singapore for the summit not aboard the North Korea Air Force Un, as it is known – a Soviet-made Ilyushin Il-62M jet – but on an Air China Boeing 747 sometimes used to transport Chinese leaders.