China and Taiwan have exchanged sharp words following an interview granted by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to Reuters.
In the interview, on 19 April, President Yoon made remarks about the situation between Taiwan and China. Tension was rising there, he said, because of ‘attempts to change the status quo by force, and we together with the international community absolutely oppose such a change.’
He went on to say that the ‘Taiwan issue is not simply an issue between China and Taiwan but, like the issue of North Korea, it is a global issue’.
A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry retorted the following day: ‘There is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an unalienable part of China.’ Taiwan’s place in China was a purely domestic issue.
South Korea’s foreign ministry subsequently issued a statement claiming that China’s reaction ‘warrants a criticism on the severe diplomatic faux pas and makes people doubt China’s national character.’
In related developments, Russia hit out at South Korea, responding to remarks in the Reuters interview in which Yoon suggested that the way might be open for the supply of arms to Ukraine. South Korea has supplied Ukraine with humanitarian support.
Russia’s reaction was that South Korea had ‘taken a rather unfriendly stance.’
Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chair of Russia’s Security Council, suggested that a move to provide weapons to Ukraine would be answered by the supply of Russian arms to North Korea: ‘I wonder what the residents of this country will say when they see the latest Russian arms with their closest neighbours – our partners from the DPRK.’
[Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/koreanet/52647411306]