In a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for setting up a new four-way security framework involving China, North Korea, South Korea and the United States to ensure peace on the Korean Peninsula, diplomatic sources close to relations between Washington and Beijing said.
The proposal on March 9 included the idea of signing a peace treaty among the four countries, apparently to replace the armistice that halted, but technically never ended, the 1950-1953 Korean War, said the sources, who spoke late last month on condition of anonymity. The four nations were the main parties in the Korean War.
It is unclear whether the four-way framework is being viewed by China as an alternative to the long-stalled six-party denuclearization talks, which also involve Japan and Russia.