CHINA SENDS ENVOY TO REASSURE NORTH KOREA.
Will likely ignore Trump’s call for hard line tactics
BEIJING • Xi Jinping is dispatching a “special envoy” to North Korea, days after the Chinese president held talks with Donald Trump on Pyongyang’s military buildup.
Song Tao, the head of Beijing’s International Department, will head to the North Friday, Xinhua News Agency said. Trump said in Beijing last week that the world must “act fast” to confront Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons. “And hopefully China will act faster and more effectively on this problem than anyone,” he said.
But Shi Yinhong, a government adviser and director of the Centre for American Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, said the visit was aimed at reassuring Pyongyang that China would not follow the U. S. with its tough line on the regime. “The U. S. and its allies hope that China will raise the threat of military strikes and impose harsher economic sanctions against North Korea,” he said. “But China will inform North Korea that it opposes such actions.”
Shi said he doubted whether China could “succeed in winning North Korea’s complete trust” and de- escalate tensions. The Xinhua report said Song will discuss the Chinese Communist Party’s congress, which took place last month, without providing details.
Song is not directly connected to China’s efforts to convince Pyongyang to cease its nuclear weapons program and return to talks, downplaying the chances for a breakthrough in that highly contentious area.
China is North Korea’s largest trading partner and chief source of food and fuel aid, although it says its influence with Kim’s regime is often exaggerated by the U. S. and others. While it is enforcing harsh new UN sanctions targeting the North’s sources of foreign currency, Beijing has called for steps to renew dialogue.
Beijing is also opposed to measures that could bring down Kim’s regime, possibly depriving it of a buffer with South Korea and the almost 30,000 U. S. troops stationed there, and leading to a refugee crisis and chaos along its border with the North.
North Korea was the key issue of Trump’s Asia tour, which saw the U. S. president visit Japan, South Korea and China in an effort to shore up efforts to confront Kim Jong Un’s regime.
Observers believe that China is becoming increasingly frustrated with Pyongyang’s provocations. However, there have been signs of warming relations between the two neighbours. Kim congratulated Xi at the close of the party congress, while Xi said he was hoping to improve ties with Pyongyang, North Korean media reported.