BEIJING: China said on Wednesday it would not participate in denuclearisation talks with the United States and Russia, after President Donald Trump said he hoped to include Beijing in negotiations.

Trump on Monday said the United States was trying to pursue denuclearisation with both countries.

“I think the denuclearisation is a very – it is a big aim. But Russia is willing to do it and I think China is going to be willing to do it too,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“We can’t let nuclear weapons proliferate. We have to stop nuclear weapons,” he added.

North Korea slams S. Korean president’s remarks on denuclearisation of peninsula

Russia and the United States — former Cold War rivals — possess almost 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear weapons between them, but Moscow pulled out of the last remaining arms control agreement with Washington in 2023.

When asked about Trump’s comments, Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Wednesday it was “neither reasonable nor realistic” to expect China to participate in trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations with the United States and Russia.

“China and the United States are not at the same level at all in terms of nuclear capabilities,” Guo told reporters.

“The countries with the largest nuclear arsenal should earnestly fulfil their special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament,” he said.

Beijing says it favours disarmament in principle but has regularly rejected Washington’s invitations to join US-Russian talks on reducing their nuclear arsenals.

According to 2024 estimates by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States has 3,708 nuclear warheads and Russia 4,380, excluding retired warheads.

China had 500, 90 more than in 2023. Behind them were France (290) and Britain (225).

Beijing said on Wednesday it maintains its nuclear forces “at the minimum level required for national security, and does not engage in an arms race with any country”.

North Korea criticises South Korea president’s remarks

In a related development, North Korea called South Korean President Lee Jae Myung a “hypocrite” on Wednesday over remarks he made about the denuclearisation of the peninsula during a visit to the United States this week.

Since taking office in June, Lee has sought warmer ties with the nuclear-armed North and has vowed to build “military trust” with Pyongyang.

But North Korea has said it has no interest in improving relations with Seoul, a key regional security ally for Washington.

During his Monday visit to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the American capital, Lee said Seoul and Washington’s alliance would be “upgraded to a global level” when “there is a path for denuclearisation, peace and coexistence on the Korean Peninsula”.

Since a failed summit with the United States in 2019, North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear weapons and declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state.

Lee had “pretended that he had a will to restore the relations” with North Korea, but had revealed “his true colours as a confrontation maniac” and a “hypocrite” with his recent remarks, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Lee’s mention of “denuclearisation is little short of a naive dream like trying to catch a cloud floating in the sky,” it added.

After meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo last week, Lee also said the two countries — both security allies of Washington — had “reaffirmed our shared commitment to the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”.

KCNA said on Wednesday that North Korea would “remain unchanged in our stand not to abandon the nuclear weapons, the prestige and honor of the state”.

During his meeting with Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, Lee asked the US president — who has often boasted of his personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — to help make peace between the North and South.

“The only person who can make progress is you Mr President,” Lee said, adding: “If you become the peacemaker, then I will assist you by being a pacemaker.” Kim’s 2019 summit with Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, which discussed North Korea’s denuclearisation, collapsed because the two sides disagreed on what Pyongyang would concede in return for sanctions relief.

During his meeting with Lee, Trump — who met Kim three times in his first term — said he hoped to meet again with the North Korean leader, possibly this year.

Trump once famously said he and Kim had fallen “in love”, but ultimately failed to yield a lasting agreement.

Kim has since been emboldened by the war in Ukraine, securing critical support from Russia after sending thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Moscow.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2025