The White House said that during his visit to China on the 14∼15, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed the goal of North Korea’s denuclearization.

In a fact sheet on the results of the U.S.-China summit posted on its website on the 17th (local time), the White House stated, “President Trump and President Xi affirmed their shared objective of denuclearizing North Korea.”

It was already known that the two leaders discussed Korean Peninsula issues at the talks held in Beijing, but this is the first confirmation that they agreed on ‘denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula’.

However, given that China, which prioritizes North Korea-China relations, has not cooperated in recent years with United Nations Security Council (UNSC) condemnations and strengthened sanctions over North Korea’s ballistic missile launches, it remains uncertain whether this agreement will translate into increased pressure on Pyongyang.

The United States’ second Trump administration, launched last January, has also maintained the goal of North Korea’s denuclearization, but amid a backlog of other foreign policy issues, it has not presented concrete options for talks or pressure to achieve that goal.

After the summit between President Trump and President Xi on the 14th, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that “the two leaders exchanged views on major international and regional issues such as the situation in the Middle East, the Ukraine crisis, and the Korean Peninsula.” In contrast, the White House’s official readout of the talks made no mention at all of matters related to the Korean Peninsula.

Earlier, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer also said in an interview with ABC on the same day that “President Trump and President Xi Jinping agreed to maintain the goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

Greer accompanied President Trump on this trip to China and attended all official meetings, including the summit on the 14th, a tea meeting, and a working luncheon the following day.