Speculations rife over Kim’s secret China visit

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un made his first-ever foreign trip as leader to meet China’s president in Beijing last week ahead of proposed summits with Seoul and Washington that could unsettle nuclear-armed Pyongyang’s sole ally.

The visit which came at the invitation of Xi Jinping, Kim held talks with the Chinese president who hosted a banquet to welcome the North Korean leader and his wife Ri Sol. The state media confirmed the visit only after Kim had returned to North Korea.

Relations between China and North Korea had soured as Beijing has backed tough United Nations sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its missile and nuclear tests.

Kim’s meeting with Xi has led to a round of speculations in media though the details behind the meeting is still unknown.

The optimistic view holds that, now that Kim has achieved a nuclear arsenal that puts the world on edge, he can turn his attention to economic growth, the other branch of his parallel development policy, the Newyorker reported.

Pessimists call that reading naive, arguing that Kim’s overtures are intended to lure South Korea into shedding its reliance on American security and keep the United States at bay.

Speculations are also rife that the meeting was an effort to garner China’s support ahead of potential talks with Trump. The meeting makes it more likely that a Trump-Kim summit will actually happen.

This is a strategic choice and the only right choice both sides have made based on history and reality .... This should not and will not change because of any single event at a particular time.

— XI JINPING, Chinese president