(Morning Post) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will pay a two-day visit to China starting today.This is Kim Jong-un's third visit to China in three months and his first overseas visit after the Trump-Kim summit.
China appreciates his active efforts to realize the denuclearization of the peninsula and maintain peace on the peninsula.Kim Jong-un described China as a great and friendly neighbor of North Korea.
China's official media CCTV News reported tonight that Kim Jong-un arrived in Beijing today for a two-day visit. During talks with him, he said that the important meeting between the leaders of the DPRK and the US in Singapore was an important step in the process of political settlement of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.He said that China will continue to play a constructive role.
Kim Jong-un said that if the DPRK and the United States can implement the summit consensus step by step, the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula will open up a new and important situation.
Talking about the bilateral relations between China and the DPRK, China is glad to see that the DPRK has made a major decision to shift the focus of its work to economic construction, and China supports the DPRK in taking a development path that suits its own national conditions.
China-North Korea relations have been at a low ebb for more than a year because of China's increased pressure on North Korea in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.In addition to Kim Jong-un's two visits to China before the US-North Korea summit, he also took a special plane lent by China when he attended the Singapore summit last week, highlighting China's important role in the geopolitics of the peninsula.
CCTV today quoted Kim Jong-un as saying that he thanked China for its sincere friendship and valuable support.He said that the unbreakable DPRK-China relations will be raised to a new and higher level.
According to CCTV images, Kim Yong Chol, Minister of the North Korean United Front, and Li Suyong, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Labor Party and Minister of International Affairs, and other close associates of Kim Jong Un attended the talks today.Kim Jong-un's wife, Ri Sol-ju, also visited Beijing with her husband again after her debut on the international diplomatic stage in China in March this year.
Analysts believe that Kim Jong-un's visit may be to seek China's support for the lifting of some economic sanctions against North Korea.
Zhang Huizhi, deputy dean of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at Jilin University, said in an interview with Lianhe Zaobao: Although the relationship between North Korea and the United States has initially improved, under the circumstances of a long-term lack of mutual trust between the two countries, if North Korea does not have the support of China and Russia, it will be difficult for Pyongyang to directly cooperate.The United States reached any substantive agreement.
Independent commentator Deng Yuwen judged that in the context of the Sino-US trade war, actively wooing North Korea will be one of China's means of confrontation with the United States.
He said: With China's support, North Korea can extend the timetable for denuclearization to a very long time, and China may even acquiesce to a certain extent in North Korea's limited possession of nuclear weapons, as a bargaining chip in Sino-US trade negotiations.
It is worth noting that in the past, due to reasons such as security and domestic political situation, the schedule and route of North Korean leaders' visits were very mysterious.However, CCTV announced the news on the first day of Kim Jong-un's visit to China, and also used more than seven minutes of prime news time to report, which is extremely unusual.
Zhang Huizhi analyzed that Kim Jong-un, his younger sister Kim Yo-jong and other cronies went to Singapore to attend the US-North Korea summit last week, which shows that he has successfully consolidated his regime and there is no need to worry about a possible coup in the country when he visits.
Zhang Huizhi believes that Kim Jong-un is changing the North Korean diplomatic operation method of secret and informal visits in the past, and gradually shifting to the image and etiquette that a normal leader of a country should have when visiting abroad.
She said that North Korean leaders may appear frequently on international occasions in the future, opening a new chapter for North Korea's active diplomacy.(Reported by Lin Ziheng, Beijing correspondent of Lianhe Zaobao)
