China to play major role in Korean peace

Beijing—China will certainly play an “important and constructive” role in the international peace negotiations aimed at putting a formal end to the Korean War, according to the Foreign Ministry.
“Being an influential nation in Northeast Asia and a key signatory to the ceasefire on the Korean Peninsula, China will certainly play an important and constructive role in the issues concerning the peninsula and Northeast Asian relations,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao Tuesday.
He told a regular press briefing that the establishment of a peace mechanism on the Korean Peninsula was conducive to the interest of its people as well as regional peace, stability and development. “And China will play an active role in such a process,” he pledged. China, the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) were signatories to the 1953 armistice that ended fighting in the Korean War, but there has never been a formal peace treaty and the two Koreas remain officially at war. However the leaders of Pyongyang and Seoul agreed at a landmark summit last week that “three or four nations” should meet to replace the armistice with a permanent peace agreement. The accord has raised questions about who should take part in such a meeting, as the war involved four major parties - the DPRK, the Republic of Korea (ROK), China and the United States, which led UN forces.
Liu’s remarks dismissed speculation that China will not get involved in the international peace talks to achieve a permanent peace on the peninsula.
Ho-seon, the ROK presidential spokesman also said earlier that the effort to sign a peace treaty would require China’s participation, along with other parties. Asked when the peace talks could take place, Liu said negotiations among all the parties through diplomatic channels would be needed before detailed arrangements could be made.
He told a regular press briefing that the establishment of a peace mechanism on the Korean Peninsula was conducive to the interest of its people as well as regional peace, stability and development.

—The Daily Mail, China Daily news exchange item