New | ‘It’s hard to predict the future’: China, North Korea talks now only at work level, says former top Chinese diplomat
Dai Bingguo says Beijing, Pyongyang not holding top-level talks but China will not give up on six-party talks even after North Korea’s missile launches
China and North Korea are communicating only at the “working level”, a former top Chinese diplomat has revealed.
“Now there is no meeting between the highest levels. But at other levels, we are still communicating,” Dai Bingguo said on the sidelines of the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul on Tuesday.
Dai, a former state councillor, told the South China Morning Post, a media partner at the annual conference, that “other levels” meant the working level.
We oppose war; the peninsula is in our backyard. If any war breaks out, we are victims too
He was responding to the question of whether Beijing had maintained talks with Pyongyang since its recent missile launches.
Dai said China had not given up on trying to persuade North Korea to rejoin the six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.
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Beijing has expressed frustration at recent missile launches by Pyongyang, but Dai would not say if China would give up on its long-time ally if these persisted.
“It is hard to predict what the future will be like. We hope the Korean peninsula development will not reach its worst [scenario]. We oppose war; the peninsula is in our backyard. If any war breaks out, we are victims too. We have to strive so that the situation will not develop to the stage of war.”