Seoul calls for freeze of North’s nuclear programme, Chinese mediation

As his country tries to rekindle relations with the North and rekindle discussions over its nuclear program, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has stated that he has asked Xi Jinping to play a mediator.

After a four-day state visit to China, Lee, speaking in Shanghai, suggested that Pyongyang’s nuclear program be frozen in exchange for “compensation or some form of return.”

Following meetings with senior Chinese officials, including his second meeting with Xi in two months, Lee declared, “Stop at the current level, no additional production of nuclear weapons, no transfer of nuclear weapons to abroad, no further development of ICBMs.”

If that stage is reached, Lee continued, “we can gradually reduce over the medium term.” We must not abandon our desire to have a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula over the long term.

Lee, a South Korean leader’s first state visit to China in six years, was speaking to reporters on his final day of his trip.

Following a rocky period in recent years due to a dispute over the deployment of a US missile defense system in South Korea in 2017, the visit was intended to rekindle diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Lee told reporters that there had been significant improvement in restoring trust, and that he had stated to Xi that he would “like China to play a mediating role on issues involving the Korean Peninsula, including North Korea’s nuclear program.”

Lee claimed that “everyone’s channels are completely blocked.” We aspire to China to be a peace-building tool.

Given how complicated ties between the two Koreas have become, Xi had urged Seoul to show “patience” in its dealings with Pyongyang, Lee continued.

“And they’re correct,” he said. We engaged in military operations for a considerable period of time that North Korea would have seen as threatening,” Lee said.

Former South Korean leader Yoon Suk-yeol, who was ousted, has been charged with attempting to avert military hostilities from North Korea in an effort to bolster his position.