South Korea says China supports declaration to end Korean war

Seoul, Dec 3 (EFE).- China has supported the South Korean proposal to sign a multilateral declaration to end the Korean war, the presidential office in Seoul said Friday.

China endorsed the proposal during a meeting between the National security director at South Korean presidential office Suh Hoon and Yang Jiechi, a Chinese Communist Party Politburo member in Tianjin Thursday.

A presidential office statement quoted Yang, who heads the foreign affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC), as saying that Beijing supported “the push for the end-of-war declaration and believe that (it) will contribute to promoting peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.”

However, the official Xinhua news agency did not refer to the two leaders exchanging views on the declaration.

The Chinese news agency did not reproduce any such comment by Yang in its report on the meeting in Tianjin Thursday.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in mooted the idea to sign the proposed declaration on ending the Korean war as he spoke during the United Nations General Assembly in September.

The 1950-53 war ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.

China could be one of the signatories of the proposed document since it took part in the war with North Korea.

Beijing is one of the three signatories of the ceasefire between the North Korean army and the United States-led United Nations Command.

Many say the declaration could give security guarantees to Pyongyang since North Korea has rejected Washington’s proposal to restart the denuclearization talks stalled since 2019.

But others believe that the declaration will not have the legal status of a peace treaty to change the current situation on the peninsula.

Some in South Korea criticize the proposal before resolving the issue of prisoners of war.

North Korea has not returned around 40,000 South Korean prisoners to the South.

Some 500 may be still alive in North Korean prisons. EFE

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