China has emphasized the “September 19 Joint Statement” agreed to by the parties to the Six-Party Talks in 2005 in response to the recent escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
“The Korean Peninsula issue is essentially a security issue, a product of the Cold War-era factional confrontation,” Xu Xueyuan told the National Committee for North Korea in the United States (NCNK), a forum of experts on North Korea issues in the United States, according to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. “The recent repeated escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula is due to historical, security, and international factors,” he said.
“This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Six-Party Talks,” he said, adding that the September 19 Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks in 2005 was the most significant achievement of the dialogue and negotiations to date, embodying the greatest convergence of interests of the parties.
“Under the current circumstances, the way forward to resolve the Korean Peninsula issue is to act in the spirit of the September 19 Joint Statement,” he said, adding, “We must maintain restraint, rebuild mutual trust, and build consensus.”
The Six-Party Talks are multilateral negotiations involving undersecretary or assistant secretary-level representatives from six countries – South Korea, North Korea, the United States, China, Russia, and Japan – in response to the second North Korean nuclear crisis, which erupted in 2002 over North Korea’s development of a highly enriched uranium (HEU) program.
On September 19, 2005, the parties to the Six-Party Talks agreed to the “Fourth Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks” (9-19 Joint Statement) in Beijing, China, stating that “North Korea will give up all nuclear weapons and nuclear programs and return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and the United States will take steps to normalize relations without posing a security threat to North Korea.
The Six-Party Talks, however, have not been held for nearly 18 years, ending with the December 2008 meeting of the Six-Party Talks, amid a growing standoff between the United States and North Korea over how to verify denuclearization.
“China’s proposed twin track of denuclearization and the U.S.-North Korea peace process is a balanced consideration of the concerns of the parties,” Xu said, adding, “We hope that each country will accurately treat the value of this proposal, gather consensus, 먹튀검증 and uphold problem-solving through dialogue and negotiation to resolve the security dilemma on the Korean Peninsula.”