Has Beijing given up on a nuclear weapon-free Korean peninsula?

AI Summary

Analysts suggest that although China has not publicly addressed nuclear weapons following Xi Jinping's visit to North Korea, Beijing does not appear to accept North Korea's expanding nuclear arsenal. Neither government mentioned nuclear weapons or denuclearization in their official statements during the two-day summit.

China might be downplaying nuclear weapons by not mentioning the issue after Xi Jinping’s visit to North Korea but that does not mean it has accepted its neighbour’s growing arsenal, according to analysts. Neither Beijing nor Pyongyang mentioned nuclear weapons or denuclearisation in their statements on the Chinese president’s two-day state visit to Pyongyang this week. Since Xi’s summit with US President Donald Trump in May, observers have been speculating that Beijing’s stance on Pyongyang’s...