Chattanooga Times Free Press

Kim and Xi portray strong ties after NKorea leader’s China trip

- BY GILLIAN WONG AND KIM TONG-HYUNG

BEIJING — With smiles and firm handshakes, North Korea and China used a surprise summit this week to show that despite recent tensions, Pyongyang still has a powerful backer and Beijing will not be sidelined in discussion­s about the fate of its unpredicta­ble neighbor.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s secretive talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing — which were not confirmed until after his return home — appear aimed at improving both countries’ positions ahead of Kim’s anticipate­d meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump in the coming weeks.

A key objective for Beijing is to reassert its relevance to the talks, from which it has been excluded. China has appeared increasing­ly shut out as its relations with the North deteriorat­ed and Pyongyang reached out to Seoul and Washington.

“Kim Jong Un’s visit shows that China is not marginaliz­ed, but playing a leading role. This saves China a lot of face,” said Pang Zhongying, a North Korea expert at Renmin University in Beijing.

“North Korea once again is taking advantage of China,” Pang said. “It plays the China card, showing South Korea and the U.S.: China is still my ally.”

Official reports from both

countries Wednesday depicted in effusive terms warm ties between the leaders in an effort to downplay recent tensions over Kim’s developmen­t of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

In the reports, “Kim reaffirms the traditiona­l friendship between the two countries as if nothing had ever happened, when the relationsh­ip had plummeted to unpreceden­ted lows,” said Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and Internatio­nal Studies.

Ties in recent months have frayed as China supported tougher U.N. sanctions

on North Korea and suspended coal and iron ore imports. Pyongyang last year seemingly sought to humiliate Beijing by timing some of its missile tests for major global summits in China.

Kim made the visit to China at Xi’s invitation, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said, in his first trip to a foreign country since he took power in 2011. Xinhua said the trip ran from Sunday to Wednesday but appeared to include travel time from Pyongyang on the special armored train Kim traveled on, which secretly arrived in Beijing

on Monday and left Tuesday afternoon.

Rumors of Kim’s presence began circulatin­g on Monday night, with the spotting of his special train, Chinese security teams and official delegation­s at the border city of Dandong and various points in Beijing.

Although China sought to keep Kim’s visit secret, and described it Wednesday as “unofficial,” it accorded him full honors due to a head of state, including a formal welcoming ceremony and troop review at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.

 ?? CCTV VIA AP VIDEO ?? North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands in Beijing, China. The Chinese government confirmed Wednesday that Kim went to Beijing and met with Xi in Kim’s first known trip to a foreign country since he took...
CCTV VIA AP VIDEO North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands in Beijing, China. The Chinese government confirmed Wednesday that Kim went to Beijing and met with Xi in Kim’s first known trip to a foreign country since he took...

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