Seoul Had 'Frank Discussions' in Beijing About Reunification

South Korean and Chinese officials held "frank discussions" about Korean reunification during President Park Geun-hye's visit to China last month, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said Thursday.

"Reunification issues have been a taboo in bilateral relations, but Chinese leaders this time spoke about them openly," which indicates "how much the bilateral ties have improved," Yun told said.

China also "used resolute and clear expressions about North Korean denuclearization. It was impossible to doubt its sincerity," Yun said at the Kwanhun Club, a fraternity of veteran journalists.

"The idea of some academics that North Korea is becoming a strategic burden to China rather than a buffer state is now shared by the Chinese leadership," he added.

He said China's top priority in Korean Peninsula policies used to be stability, denuclearization and negotiations, but the order of those priorities has changed to denuclearization, stability and negotiations.

Yun stressed, however, that the Park administration is not pursuing reunification based on projections of an implosion of the North Korean regime.

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