SEOUL, North Korea appears to have indirectly expressed its complaint against Beijing when it slammed a joint declaration issued after the latest trilateral summit among leaders of South Korea, China and Japan, Seoul’s unification ministry said Tuesday.
The North’s foreign ministry denounced South Korea on Monday for stating its commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in the joint declaration with Japan and China, rejecting it as “wanton interference” in North Korea’s internal affairs.
The angry reaction came hours after President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang met in Seoul, marking the resumption of a long-stalled trilateral summit after 4 1/2 years. They reaffirmed their commitment to promoting peace and stability on the peninsula.
The unification ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs said Pyongyang’s condemnation seems to be aimed at marring Seoul’s diplomacy with Tokyo and Beijing, and hampering the spirit of the joint declaration o
f the trilateral summit.
“Though the North’s rebukes were focused on the South, it was rare for North Korea to publicly denounce a (diplomatic) meeting attended by China,” a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The North has not publicly denounced summit meetings involving China’s top officials, except the 2015 summit between South Korea and China.
The ministry official noted that North Korea dubbed the latest trilateral summit as the ROK-Japan-China summit, not as the summit involving China, Japan and the South in its previous order of countries.
The North also warned Monday that if “anyone” tries to preach the benefits of denuclearization, the country will regard it as the most serious infringement upon sovereignty. Some experts said “anyone” here could mean China.
For North Korea, it could be disturbing to see that China has held a three-way summit with South Korea and Japan at a time when Beijing appears to be cautious about joining Pyongyang’s drive to deepen trilateral solida
rity with Russia and China.
Still, other observers said North Korea might have taken into account China, as the country launched its military spy satellite Monday night after Li left Seoul. A new rocket carrying the satellite exploded in a mid-air flight.
Meanwhile, the ministry official said it will likely take time for North Korea to determine the cause of the failure in the latest satellite launch, given that it did not disclose the timing of its future launch.
Pyongyang earlier said it will fire three more spy satellites in 2024, after it successfully placed its first spy satellite into orbit in November.
Source: Yonhap News Agency