Seoul – The head of Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Yang Jiechi, has shown his support for the proposal put forward by Seoul to sign a multilateral declaration that ends the Korean War, according to the South Korean presidential office assured today.
Yang showed “support for the initiative of an end-of-war declaration” during a meeting in Tianjin (north China) on Thursday with South Korean National Security Advisor Suh Wook, according to the statement from the presidential office.
Yang also said that Beijing believes that “the declaration of the end of the war will contribute to promoting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.”
However, the Chinese agency Xinhua did not refer to the two exchanging views on the aforementioned statement, nor did it reproduce any comment by Yang on the matter in its information published the day before about the meeting in Tianjin.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in again proposed last September to the United Nations General Assembly the idea of signing a declaration to end the Korean War, which took place between 1950 and 1953 and was sealed only with a Stop the fire.
China could be one of the signatories of this hypothetical document, since it took part in the war to defend North Korean territory and is one of the three signatories of the ceasefire (the other two are the North Korean army and the United Nations Command led for USA).
Many consider that the declaration could give security guarantees to Pyongyang, which has rejected proposals from Washington – whom it accuses of maintaining its “hostile policy” – to talk about the possible restart of the denuclearization talks, stalled since 2019.
In turn, others believe that the declaration, which would not actually have the legal value of a peace treaty, would change little the current situation on the peninsula.
Some in South Korea also criticize the fact that before signing a declaration the issue of prisoners of war that the North Korean regime never returned to the South (around 40,000, of which about 500 are believed to remain still alive).