SENIOR OFFICIALS from China and South Korea met in Seoul yesterday and vowed to focus on stability in North Korea after the death of “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il last week. The talks underline China’s growing role as a regional power-broker.
“Under the current circumstances, both sides reached a consensus that the most important thing is to maintain peace and stability on the Korean peninsula,” South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae told the Yonhap news agency.
Kim Jong-il’s funeral is due to take place in Pyongyang today, and South Korea is not officially represented at the event.
“To that end, the two sides agreed to keep close strategic communication and co-operation.”
China is North Korea’s most powerful ally. Both countries are communist and share ideological similarities, although North Korea remains firmly closed while China has opened up to the world in the last three decades and its economy has grown strongly.
Fuel and food aid from China has helped keep North Korea going in recent years, since sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme have hampered economic growth in the impoverished country.
China is also believed to have significant stakes in the North Korean economy, in various infrastructure projects and development schemes.
At the same time, relations between China and South Korea are generally warm, and both countries have strong economic ties. However, Beijing is wary of US influence in South Korea, and wants to maintain North Korea as a buffer state between it and the South so as to avoid US forces getting too close to its borders.
The two countries have promised to improve communication channels aimed at making the Korean peninsula more stable.
China is very keen to resume long-stalled six-party talks, which include both Koreas, Russia, the United States, and Japan, and are aimed at convincing Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for aid.
The one-day bilateral talks were led by Chinese vice foreign minister Zhang Zhijun and South Korean first vice minister of foreign affairs and trade, Park Suk-hwan, the Xinhua news agency, reported.
They are part of a mechanism set up in 2008 for annual dialogues between high-level diplomats of the two nations.
However, since the death of Kim Jong-il, the talks have taken on greater importance.
Mr Zhang also met South Korean foreign minister Kim Sung-hwan and unification minister Yu Woo-ik.
Mr Zhang made no direct comment on the death of Kim Jong-il, but said South Korea and China were “on the cusp of a new historic starting point”.