China backs South Korea’s aim of official declaration of end to 1950-1953 Korean war

Name: North Korea’s Kim Jong-un offers to reconnect vital communication line with South Korea
Uploaded: 2021-12-03T10:00:26.000Z
Duration: 2 min 10 s
Description: North Korea’s Kim Jong-un offers to reconnect vital communication line with South Korea

Politburo’s Yang Jiechi delivers message during meeting with South Korea’s National Security Director Suh Hoon; says formal end would help promote peace and stability on Korean peninsula

Seoul sees declaration as way to build trust with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and restart stalled denuclearisation talks; US says it and Seoul may have different perspectives on ‘precise sequence, timing, conditions’

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China’s Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo, with South Korea’s National Security Advisor Suh Hoon in China’s northern city of Tianjin on December 2. China is backing South Korea’s push for a formal end to the 1950-1953 Korean war. Photo: Xinhua

Park Chan-kyong,KyodoandReuters

Published: 6:00pm, 3 Dec 2021Updated: 6:06pm, 3 Dec 2021

China’s top diplomat has backed South Korea’s push for the declaration of an end to the 1950-53 Korean war, the Yonhap news agency said on Friday, citing South Korea’s embassy in Beijing.

China fought alongside North Korea against the US-led United Nations and South Korea during the confrontation that ended in an unstable armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war. China is now North Korea’s most important political ally and largest trade partner.

Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo, delivered the message during a meeting with South Korea’s National Security Director Suh Hoon – who also serves as President Moon Jae-in’s national security adviser – in Tianjin, a city in northern China.

Yang was quoted as saying that China supports “the push for the end-of-war declaration and believes that the end-of-war declaration will contribute to promoting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula”.

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Yang and Suh also reaffirmed that the two sides would work on President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to South Korea as soon as the Covid-19 situation is stable. Xi’s trip has been postponed because of the pandemic.