President Moon Jae-in is taking a commemorative photo before the summit meeting with President Xi Jinping at the People’s Congress of Beijing, China on December 23, 2019. Blue House Photo Reporters
President Moon Jae-in spoke on the phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the 26th and urged China to play a constructive role in resolving the Korean Peninsula problem through dialogue. President Xi responded, saying, “We support inter-Korean-North American dialogue,” and “China values Korea’s role in political resolution,” the Blue House said. The normal currency between Korea and China has been 8 months since May last year. President Moon said in a call that lasted for 40 minutes from 9 o’clock that night, he said he expects President Xi’s visit to Korea, which was not successful due to the corona 19 crisis last year, said Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok. President Moon also said, “Chairman Xi Jinping evaluated his unchanging willingness to visit Korea through an oral message last November (transferred by the foreign minister by the king of Korea), and as soon as the corona situation stabilizes and conditions are established, the visit to Korea will take place early. We look forward to the communication between the two countries so that we can communicate.” President Xi also said, “I am grateful for President Moon’s warm invitation to the state visit,” and “I look forward to seeing you as soon as conditions permit. To this end, I hope that the diplomatic authorities of the two countries will communicate closely.” In particular, Xi said, “I think North Korea has not closed the doors of dialogue with the United States and South Korea because of the external position that North Korea announced at the 8th Congress of the Labor Party.” “The situation on the Korean peninsula is generally stable.” The call between the two leaders on this day was settled and attracted attention as President Moon is about to make a call with US President Biden. Biden’s administration’s strategy toward China is expected to inherit the pressure strategy of former President Trump. At this point, it is difficult to overlook Xi’s choice of currency with South Korea’s President Moon, one of the major US allies. Earlier, Xi made a speech at the World Economic Forum Agenda meeting held on the 25th, saying, “In order to solve the current challenges of the times, we must walk the path of multilateralism and building a community for human destiny.” Trump indirectly criticized the’US Priority’ that the former US administration had promoted so far, and showed cooperation by emphasizing the’human community’ to the Biden administration. However, the White House replied at a regular briefing that day, “Our access to China remains the same as in the last few months.” “We want to discuss with our allies the path ahead,” said US White House spokesman Jen Saki. Both sides are fighting fiercely over the future diplomatic strategies of the US and China. It seems that President Moon also chose to speak with President Xi before talking with President Biden in order to carefully examine the intentions of China, the largest trading country, amid such diplomatic changes. However, an official from the Blue House said, “Since President Xi was unable to return to Korea last year, the diplomatic channels of the two countries achieved consensus that it would be nice if the two leaders had a New Year’s greeting,” he said, saying that there is no other background. The Blue House did not say which party offered the call first. On the other hand, on that day, the two leaders decided to further promote exchange and cooperation between the two countries ahead of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and China in 2022 in Tonghua, and to plan together a blueprint for the next 30 years through the’Korea-China Relations Future Development Committee’. Said this. The’Korea-China Relations Future Development Committee’ is an organization established to prepare a blueprint that suggests the direction of development of the Korea-China relations, which marks the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations. The two countries agreed in principle to launch this committee at a meeting of foreign ministers held on November 26 last year. By Lee Wan, staff reporter [email protected]