President Lee Jae Myung (right) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they pose for a photo at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Friday. (Yonhap)
President Lee Jae Myung (right) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping as they pose for a photo at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Friday. (Yonhap)

GYEONGJU, North Gyeongsang Province —North Korea derided South Korea’s bid to raise the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula during the summit between the South Korean and Chinese leaders, issuing a sharply worded statement on the day of their meeting.

North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong-ho issued a press statement Saturday morning, the day South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping were set to meet for their first in-person summit later in the day.

“The ROK talks about the issue of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula whenever an opportunity presents itself,” an English-language statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency read, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.

“The ROK is still unaware that struggling to deny the DPRK's position as a nuclear weapons state and talking about its daydream of realizing denuclearization just reveal its lack of common sense.”

Pak’s statement specifically targeted remarks made Friday by presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung, without naming her. Kang said that Seoul and Beijing “agreed to place on the agenda discussions on issues of peace, including achieving denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and peace.”

“We will show with patience that denuclearization is a ‘pipedream’ which can never be realized even if it talks about it a thousand times,” the statement read.

Lee and Xi are set to sit down on Saturday afternoon during Xi’s state visit to South Korea — the first such visit to the country since 2014 — overlapping with his attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

The outcome of the Lee–Xi summit on the North Korean issue has drawn attention in light of mounting concerns over China’s tacit acquiescence to North Korea’s nuclear weapons possession, which goes against the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Worries have grown after the statement on the results of the September summit between Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un omitted any reference to North Korea’s intent to pursue “denuclearization.”

The omission was noteworthy as it marked a departure from past practice, given that the term "denuclearization" appeared in statements issued after the five summits between Kim and Xi from 2018 to 2019 — four of them held in China.

Kim met with Xi for the first time in over six years during his visit to China to attend the country’s Sept. 3 “Victory Day” celebrations, where he observed a massive military parade while standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Tiananmen rostrum.


dagyumji@heraldcorp.com