Unification Ministry Monitors Moves of North Korean Foreign Minister Who Criticized G7 ... South Korean and Chinese Foreign Ministers to Meet Today

[Financial News] The Ministry of Unification (MOU) said on the 13th that it was monitoring North Korea’s reaction to the G7 foreign ministers’ reaffirmation of “complete denuclearization.” The MOU did not, however, immediately express its support for the G7’s resolve on North Korea’s complete denuclearization. Since the Lee Jae Myung administration took office, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young has been more reluctant to comment than MOFA, which has backed North Korea’s complete denuclearization.
When calls for North Korea’s complete denuclearization were made at the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting recently held in Paris, France, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui denounced the G7 as a politically insignificant minority group with no reason to exist. The G7 foreign ministers condemned North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and reaffirmed the goal of North Korea’s “complete denuclearization” in accordance with relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.
MOU Deputy Spokesperson Jang Yun-jeong said at a regular briefing that day, in response to the North Korean foreign minister’s remarks, “This reaffirmed North Korea’s longstanding position of rejecting the international community’s calls for denuclearization,” adding, “North Korea has generally either remained silent on joint statements by G7 foreign ministers’ meetings or responded at the Foreign Ministry level.”
Foreign Minister Choe said, “The G7’s insistence on anyone’s ‘denuclearization,’ which has already lost all meaning and justification, is an escapist and double-standard approach,” and disparaged the G7 as “a marginalized minority political group that has lost its reason to exist.”
Meanwhile, the South Korean and Chinese foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Beijing to discuss issues concerning the Korean Peninsula. The meeting between the foreign ministers of South Korea and China was arranged just days before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, on the 18th and 19th.
At the invitation of Wang Yi, a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party and China’s foreign minister, Cho Hyun, South Korea’s foreign minister, will visit Beijing on the 13th and 14th. Cho is scheduled to hold talks with Wang and attend a dinner on the 13th. The meeting between the South Korean and Chinese foreign ministers is expected to cover North Korea-U.S. talks and issues concerning the Korean Peninsula, among other topics.

[email protected] Kim Kyung-soo Reporter