South Korea president arrives in China

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye has arrived in the Chinese capital for talks with China’s officials, which will mainly focus on the issue of North Korea and its nuclear program.

China’s state broadcaster CCTV said on Thursday Park “arrived in Beijing to start a four-day visit to China.”

The south Korean president, who is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, has said that her priority will be to “harden” cooperation between Seoul and Beijing on the denuclearization of North Korea.

“China has traditionally emphasized the need to keep North Korea stable, while trying to solve the nuclear issue,” said Choi Woo-seon, a professor at the state-run Korea National Diplomatic Academy.

The trip comes after North Korea’s Ambassador to the UN Sin Son Ho demanded the dissolution of the United Nations Command in South Korea, accusing the United States of building an Asian version of NATO.

“The most pressing issue in northeast Asia today is the hostile relations between the DPRK (North Korea) and the US which can lead to another war at any moment,” Sin said on June 21.

The North Korean envoy stated that the deteriorating situation on the Korean Peninsula “is not caused by the DPRK,” adding that “All deteriorations and intensified situations (are) entirely caused by the United States of America.”

The Korean Peninsula has been locked in a cycle of military rhetoric over the past few months.

On June 23, Rodong Sinmun daily, which is run by North Korea’s ruling party, said the United States “can never cover up its true colors as the chief culprit escalating the tensions on the Peninsula in a planned and deliberate way.”