Politics

Seoul, Beijing to cooperate for stability after North Korean satellite launch

Seoul, Nov 26 (EFE).- South Korea and China agreed on Sunday to collaborate to maintain stability in the Korean peninsula after tensions escalated following the recent launch of Pyongyang’s first spy satellite, which it claims has taken photos of “major target areas” in the South.

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi met in Busan on Sunday and discussed the latest technological developments of the North Korean regime, which has pulled out of a military agreement it signed with the South in 2018.

Following the launch of the satellite by Pyongyang on Tuesday night, Seoul announced that it was suspending the clause of the pact that limits the reconnaissance surveillance activities of its military along the militarized border with North Korea, to which Pyongyang responded by withdrawing from the agreement.

This has further escalated tensions in the Korean peninsula with increasing distance between both countries after the record volume of missile and other weapons tests carried out by North Korea since last year.

Park told Wang that his country’s decision to partially suspend the pact was a minimal defensive measure in the face of an increasingly belligerent North Korean regime and asked the Chinese foreign minister to strengthen collaboration between their countries in such a scenario.

Park requested China to “play a constructive role, as it is in the common interests of South Korea and China that North Korea stop its provocations and take the path of denuclearization,” a foreign ministry official told reporters, local news agency Yonhap said.

Wang, for his part, expressed “concerns” about the increase in tension in the region after the satellite launch and said that Beijing would do its part to “help stabilize the situation,” the official added.

The meeting takes place days after North Korea placed spy satellite Malligyong-1 into orbit after two failed attempts.

After the launch, China urged all parties involved to remain calm and exercise restraint and said it would continue to play a constructive role in promoting peace and stability in Korea, a message Wang reiterated to Park in their meeting.

The meeting between Park and Wang was held hours before they met Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa to discuss this and other matters of common interest and to coordinate to revive their stalled trilateral summits.

Park also met Kamikawa earlier in the day to address pending bilateral issues such as rulings by South Korean courts on sexual slavery by the Japanese imperial army in the last century, one of the main stumbling blocks in bilateral relations. EFE

asb-mra/pd

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