FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
In Pyongyang, China’s Wang Yi Offers Economic and Strategic Cooperation
May 3, 2018 (EIRNS)—In meetings today in Pyongyang with Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho and Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi focused on recent positive inter-Korean developments, particularly North Korea’s commitment to achieving denuclearization, and discussed the need to strengthen “friendly and cooperative” bilateral relations, following Kim’s meeting in late March with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Yonhap News Agency reported, in fact, that Xi is expected to visit Pyongyang following the upcoming Kim-Trump summit. In meeting with Kim, Wang delivered Xi’s greetings, stressing that the Kim-Xi summit had “opened a new chapter” in bilateral relations, and congratulated the North Korean leader on last week’s historic meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Kim, in turn, praised China’s efforts and contributions to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula, and emphasized that “realizing the denuclearization of the Peninsula is North Korea’s firm stance,” according to China’s Foreign Ministry. He also said that Pyongyang is willing “through restoring dialogue and building mutual trust, to explore eliminating the origins of threats to peace on the Peninsula.”
Kim told Wang that bilateral relations were a “valuable legacy,” left by the leaders of previous generations of both countries, and that it was the D.P.R.K.’s strategic goal to improve those ties. Xinhua reports Wang’s remarks to his counterpart Ri that the traditional friendship between the two nations is “a shared and precious treasure,” and that the strategic goal of both countries is to continuously develop this and “pass this friendship on to future generations.” China, Wang said, will work with the D.P.R.K. to implement “in substantial ways” the consensus that Kim and Xi reached when they met, by strengthening communication and coordination between political and diplomatic entities, engaging in “pragmatic economic and trade cooperation,” people-to-people exchanges, and “instilling new vigor” into bilateral relations.
Wang also emphasized that China fully supports the D.P.R.K.’s efforts to “find its own development approach” that is coherent with its national needs and interests, and to focus on efforts to rebuild the country economically.
