China opposes Vancouver meeting on Korean Peninsula issue

January 17, 2018

BEIJING - China on Tuesday again voiced opposition to a gathering in Vancouver of foreign ministers from 20 countries on security and stability on the Korean Peninsula. Canada and the United States will co-host the meeting to discuss measures to exert maximum diplomatic as well as economic pressures on North Korea to force it to end its nuclear and missile programmes.

China’s State newsagency, Xinhua, reported Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang as telling a routine press briefing: "Since this meeting does not have legitimacy or representativeness, China has opposed the meeting from the very beginning,

"While countries are committed to finding a proper solution for the peaceful settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, some parties hold such a meeting in the name of the so-called United Nations command during the Cold War era. We do not know what the purpose of convening such a meeting is."

Lu Kang said that without participation of some of the most important direct parties to the nuclear issue, the Vancouver meeting had no legitimacy and was not representative. www.webershandwick,cn (ATI).