South Korean President Lee Jae Myung proposes a halt to Pyongyang’s nuclear programme in alternate for ‘compensation’.
Revealed On 7 Jan 2026
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has mentioned he has requested his Chinese language counterpart Xi Jinping to play a mediation position as his authorities seeks to enhance relations with the North and restart talks over its nuclear programme.
Talking in Shanghai on Wednesday, on the finish of a four-day state go to to China, Lee proposed a freeze in Pyongyang’s nuclear programme in alternate for “compensation or some type of return”.
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“Simply stopping on the present degree – no further manufacturing of nuclear weapons, no switch of nuclear supplies overseas, and no additional growth of ICBMs – would already be a acquire,” Lee advised journalists following conferences with prime Chinese language officers, together with his second assembly with Xi in two months.
“If that stage is achieved, then within the medium time period we are able to transfer towards gradual discount,” Lee added. “In the long run, we should not quit the objective of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.”
Lee was chatting with reporters on the ultimate day of his journey, which was the primary state go to by a South Korean chief to China in six years.
The go to aimed to reset relations between the nations following a rocky interval lately as a result of a dispute over the deployment in South Korea of a United States missile defence system in 2017.
Lee advised reporters that a lot progress had been made in restoring belief and that he had advised Xi he would “like China to play a mediating position on points associated to the Korean Peninsula, together with North Korea’s nuclear programme”.
“All our channels are utterly blocked,” Lee mentioned. “We hope China can function … a mediator for peace.”
Xi had urged Seoul to point out “endurance” in its dealings with Pyongyang, given how fraught ties between the 2 Koreas have turn out to be, Lee added.
“And so they’re proper. For fairly a protracted interval, we carried out army actions that North Korea would have perceived as threatening,” Lee mentioned.
South Korea’s ousted former President Yoon Suk-yeol has been indicted for allegedly making an attempt to impress army aggression from North Korea in a bid to assist him consolidate energy.
On Monday, Pyongyang confirmed it had carried out test flights of hypersonic missiles, with chief Kim Jong Un saying it was essential to “develop the … nuclear deterrent” in mild of “the latest geopolitical disaster” – an obvious reference to Washington’s assaults on Venezuela and its abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
