China rolls out the red carpet for Kim’s visit

A mystery train has ended with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping bonding over a banquet.

Sneaky

While the world was frantically speculating about various clues that a high-level North Korean delegation had sneaked into Beijing unannounced, a smiling Kim and Xi toasted each other with glasses of white and red wine at a grand banquet. Taking a leaf out of his father’s cloak-and-dagger approach for his debut diplomatic foray, Kim glided across the Chinese border on the 21-carriage armoured train with blacked-out windows. The arrival of the train first piqued the interest of the Japanese media on Monday, sparking frenzied guesswork. On Wednesday, the visit was finally confirmed.

Splendour

Inside the Great Hall of the People, Kim and Xi affected their most statesmanlike poses for a series of pictures. The first seven pages of North Korea’s state newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, were replete with the pomp and splendour of the trip. It included photographs on red carpets, in front of flags, outdoors in a beautiful garden, and a high-powered motorcade through the empty streets of central Beijing.

Duty

Kim told Xi that there was “no question” that his first foreign visit was going to be to the Chinese capital, according to North Korea’s KCNA. “This is my solemn duty,” he declared. The North Korean leader had taken at least six years to consolidate his domestic power base before risking his inaugural trip abroad, and he needed to get it right. After asserting his rule through a series of purges and rapid progress on his nuclear and missiles programs, he arrived in Beijing with the appearance of a man who held several cards in his pocket.

Belle

Kim was the “belle of the ball in northeast Asia”, said Ankit Panda, a North Korea expert, in a BBC analysis. “(He) sees his nuclear weapons as having conferred on this country a certain degree of status and prestige. His trip to China serves to underline that.”

Messaging

The message to the North Korean public was tightly edited. While the Chinese media reported that denuclearization and a possible meeting with President Donald Trump were both discussed, there were no such mentions by Pyongyang’s official newswire, KCNA. Any shift on North Korea’s weapons — known as a “treasured sword of justice” — would be a sudden and dramatic turnaround for a leader who has staked his power and legitimacy on his nuclear arsenal. Instead, North Koreans were told of the “precious tradition” of the friendship between their nation and China.

Diplomacy

In an article for Australia’s Lowy Institute, Robert Kelly, a professor of political science at South Korea’s Busan University, said the surprise Beijing meeting made the Trump-Kim summit more likely. “Kim probably wanted to ask the Chinese if they thought Trump’s offer was real,” he wrote.