South Korean security adviser visits China as Seoul pushes for formal end to Korean war

Top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi meets South Korean security adviser Suh Hoon in Tianjin

Visit comes as South Korea doubles down on outgoing President Moon Jae-in’s bid to negotiate a formal treaty to end the 1950s conflict

Reading Time:3 minutes

Chinese soldiers salute coffins containing the remains of Chinese military personnel who died during the 1950-53 Korean War, at Incheon International Airport in South Korea. Photo: EPA

Published: 9:08pm, 2 Dec 2021Updated: 9:20pm, 2 Dec 2021

China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi met South Korea’s national security adviser on Thursday, amid efforts by Seoul to garner support for a formal declaration ending the 1950-53 Korean war.

Yang, a Politburo member regarded as President Xi Jinping’s most trusted foreign policy aide, hosted Suh Hoon, director of Korea’s national security office, in Tianjin. It was their second meeting since August last year, when Yang travelled to Busan.

Suh’s two-day trip was a reciprocal visit, the South Korean presidential office said earlier.

Yang Jiechi (left) with Suh Hoon in Busan last year. Photo: Yonhap via AP

Discussions with Yang would include “bilateral relations in general, as next year marks the 30th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties”, Suh told South Korean media after landing in Tianjin.

The visit comes at a time when South Korean President Moon Jae-in is pushing for an agreement to officially declare an end to the Korean war.

Hostilities were only halted by an 1953 armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving South and North Korea technically still at war, more than 70 years on.

Chinese troops joined North Korean forces against the South and the US-led UN Command in the war, the geopolitical ramifications of which resonate until this day.