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South Korea to Trump: We Were Never Part of China

Trump said China’s president told him South Korea was once a part of China.

South Korea on Thursday clarified that it was never a part of China, after President Donald Trump told The Wall Street Journal that Chinese President Xi Jinping told him that “Korea actually used to be a part of China.” Cho June-hyuck, a spokesman for South Korea’s foreign ministry, said “it’s a clear fact acknowledged by the international community that, for thousands of years in history, Korea has never been part of China.” Hong Joon-pyo, a South Korean presidential candidate called the suggestion a “distortion of history” and “an invasion of the Republic of Korea’s sovereignty.” The comment comes amid an already-tenuous relationship between South Korea and China over the U.S.’s deployment of a missile defense system in South Korea in an effort to counter North Korean aggression. The U.S. has been trying to persuade China to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear ambitions.