SEOUL: South Korea will never recognise or tolerate North Korea as a nuclear state, nor will Seoul have nuclear weapons, the South’s President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday, while China said it would work with Seoul to denuclearise the Korean peninsula.
China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Beijing and Seoul will continue to use diplomatic means to address the Korean peninsula issue, according to a statement.
At the meeting, China and South Korea agreed to work together towards resolving the North Korean nuclear issue and to normalise all exchanges to end a year-long standoff over the deployment of a US anti-missile system.
Both sides agreed to continue close cooperation to restart denuclearisation talks, Seoul said.
North Korea’s state media had no comment on the shift in ties between South Korea and China as of midday on Wednesday. It has not engaged in missile tests since mid-September or any nuclear tests since its biggest one early that month.
Earlier this week, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa had said despite the deployment of one anti-missile battery, South Korea has no intention to join a US missile-defence system in the region and would not host additional batteries. Kang added South Korea would not enter any trilateral military alliance with the United States and Japan.
