China’s state-run news outlets are trying to settle a controversy over a recent remark by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in which he said that the Korean War was a war to resist U.S. aggression.

Following Xi’s remark, Xinhua News and the People’s Daily carried a Chinese general’s opinion acknowledging that North Korea caused the Korean War by invading South Korea on June 25th, 1950.

The Chinese general said a declassified Russian government document shows that North Korean founder Kim Il-sung invaded South Korea with the approval of Joseph Stalin.

But the general added that Chinese forces aided the North to stand up to the U.S. in the war from October 1950 to July 1953. He said that China achieved a great victory by defeating U.N. troops near the Yalu River.

The Chinese vice president, who is thought to be in line to succeed Hu Jintao as president, stirred controversy Monday by saying that the Korean War was a “great victory in the pursuit of world peace and human progress” and was a "just war for safeguarding peace and resisting aggression."