North Korea’s Kim makes third visit to China
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday began an unprecedented third visit to China in three months, with experts saying he is expected to brief the Chinese leadership about his summit with US President Donald Trump last week.
Chinese state media announced Kim’s latest visit ahead of his arrival on Tuesday, breaking from the protocol of publicising his earlier trips only after they were over, and reported he would stay for two days. “We hope this visit can help to further deepen China-North Korea relations, strengthen strategic communication between both countries on important issues and promote regional peace and stability,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular news briefing. Kim met President Xi Jinping in Beijing in March, the first time he travelled abroad after assuming power in 2011. Next, he came to the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian in May, when he again met Xi to discuss ties, providing a photo-op of the two leaders taking a stroll on the beach.
On June 12, Kim met Trump in Singapore for what was touted as the most high-profile political summit in recent years. The summit marked the first meeting between a top North Korean leader and a serving US president. Trump and Kim signed a joint statement that committed the US to providing security guarantees to North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang’s commitment to complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
However, the document was criticised for being short on specifics, such as a timeframe for denuclearisation or the steps to be taken by North Korea to wind up its nuclear programme.
Trump also said the US would stop annual joint military exercises with South Korea, which according to Chinese state media has been denounced by Pyongyang as rehearsals for a northward invasion.
Kim’s trip to China to discuss his summit with Trump had been widely anticipated in diplomatic circles. China remains North Korea’s most important diplomatic and economic backer and has welcomed the suspension of the US-South Korea military drills. “Kim may discuss details on implementing the agreement signed in Singapore as North Korea needs assistance on denuclearisation,” Zhang Huizhi, vice dean of the Northeast Asian Studies College at Jilin University, told state-run Global Times.