The country also called for negotiations of a peace treaty between both sides to bring about long-lasting peace on the Korean peninsula.
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In May, North Korea released footage of what it claimed to be the triumphant lift-off of an SLBM, showing a ballistic missile shooting out of a submerged watercraft. That was when U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said they were ready to engage North Korea.
“I think [the Chinese] have been playing a game for 20 years” of saying it is trying to halt North Korea’s nuclear program.
North Korea’s ambassador to Malaysia Kang Chol said the matter of concluding the peace treaty to replace the Korean armistice agreement should be given priority.
North and South Korea remain technically at war under a truce it signed in 1953 with the United States, which led UN forces backing the South, and China, which fought for the North.
“The North Korean provisional committee pushed ahead with the penalization of pro-Japanese collaborators and land reforms”, whereas, “(The South Korean) Syngman Rhee’s administration was very lukewarm in legally penalizing them”, one passage reads, according to Kim. It also said that such a deal “would finally put an end to the nuclear arms race”.
“If the United States insists on taking a different path, the Korean peninsula will only see our unlimited nuclear deterrent being strengthened further”, said the October 18 foreign ministry statement.
North Korea forewent provocative acts such as a long-range rocket launch before the anniversary, which the North had threatened to do in recent weeks.
Chung-in Moon teaches political science at Yonsei University in Seoul.
Following Liu’s visit, it is likely that Beijing and Pyongyang will reopen the traditional multiple channels between China’s Communist party and North Korea’s Workers’ Party, China’s People’s Liberation Army and the Korean People’s Army, and other party-affiliated organisations, and also make important moves to expand economic and military cooperation.
North Korea is under United Nations sanctions over launching rockets considered by the USA and South Korea as ballistic missiles aimed at delivering nuclear warheads, but Pyongyang says its numerous missile tests seek to boost defense capabilities in the face of enemy threats.
Mr. Moon said now is the time to try a new plan of action.
When the Asia Times suggested such conflict may be natural and even desirable in a democracy, Chin Jae-gwan, the director of the state-run National Institute of Korean History who also briefed journalists, returned to the theme of harmony.
Under the Joint Statement that was issued on September 19, 2005, at the now-dormant six-party denuclearization talks, the concerned parties are to have separate talks on establishing a durable peace treaty.
Kim said enforcement of sanctions has improved – including by the North’s only ally, China – “and that has caused a few pain in Pyongyang”, as its revenues from illicit activities overseas have decreased. Jim Dresbach adapted this story for Learning English.
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