North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets Chinese President Xi, again

TOKYO — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his second visit to China in as many months, visiting the port city of Dalian for another meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday.

Speculation had been rife that Kim had traveled to Dalian, not far from the border between China and North Korea, after citizens reported tightened security and traffic controls. Then Kim’s jet and a North Korean cargo plane were spotted at an airport near the city.

The latest visit comes after Kim traveled to Beijing in March, his first journey outside the country since becoming leader at the end of 2011, and amid a sudden frenzy of diplomacy. Kim crossed the Demilitarized Zone into South Korea late last month to meet South Korean president Moon Jae-in for a summit that was considered a warm-up act for a meeting with President Trump some time in the next month.

Shortly after Xinhua’s announcement, Trump tweeted that he would be talking to his “friend” Xi in the next hour.

“The primary topics will be Trade, where good things will happen, and North Korea, where relationships and trust are building,” he tweeted.

Kim visited Dalian on Monday and Tuesday, Xinhua reported Tuesday night.

“Xi held talks with Kim and hosted a welcome banquet for him. Together, they also took a stroll and attended a luncheon,” the state-run agency reported. 

“In a cordial and friendly atmosphere, the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries had an all-around and in-depth exchange of views on China-DPRK relations and major issues of common concern,” the report said, using the abbreviation for North Korea's official name.

NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster, broadcast footage of the North Korean leader’s jet and another Air Koryo plane at the international airport near Dalian at about midday on Tuesday. The plane believed to be carrying Kim took off at about 3:20 p.m. local time.

There are no regular commercial flights between Dalian and North Korea and the airport was closed to other aircraft while the plane departed, NHK reported.

Xi was reportedly in the northeastern city of Dalian to attend a ceremony marking the test launch of China's first entirely domestically-produced aircraft carrier.

[Trump hails ‘historic’ Korea meeting but leaves questions about next step ]

As the inter-Korean relationship has warmed and Trump has shown a willingness to meet with Kim — he would be the first American president to meet a North Korean leader — Xi appears to be making sure that he is not left out of the diplomatic process.

For his part, Kim could be trying to improve ties with Xi — which have been frosty, to put it mildly — in case his outreach to Trump falls flat, analysts say.

The second meeting with Xi and the lack of details on the Trump-Kim summit — a time and location have still not been set, although Trump has said an announcement is coming soon — has raised speculation among analysts that the summit preparations may have hit a snag.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha tried to dismiss the concerns, saying it was “diplomatically unthinkable” to delay the summit given both leaders’ “strong” will to hold it.

“From a broad perspective, I think it would not be a big problem that the summit [plan] is announced one or two days late,” Kang, who attended the inter-Korean summit, said in an interview with local broadcaster KBS. “This meeting is one that carries the will of President Trump and State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong Un,” she said, using Kim’s formal title.

[North Korea promises to dismantle its nuclear test site in public view, South says]

News of a second meeting between the two leaders so soon after the first one surprised analysts and said it could be a sign of real discussions about denuclearization.

“If Kim Jong Un is in China again, there might be some real substantive negotiations going on,” said Zhao Tong, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing. “Maybe North Korea and the U.S. are thinking about making some radical concessions.”

South Korea has repeatedly said that the North is willing to discuss its nuclear program in talks with the United States, and at their summit on April 27, the two Korean leaders signed a statement agreeing to the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula.

Although there is considerable skepticism in the United States and Japan about whether North Korea is genuine, analysts point out that Kim appears to want to move on from nuclear to economic development.

“I do think North Korea would have a very strong interest to pivot to economic development,” Zhao said. “In this regard it would have a strong motivation to build much stronger economic ties with China, South Korea and Russia.” 

The two leaders could be exploring ways to do that without violating U.N. sanctions, he added. 

The South Korean government is exploring ways to increase economic cooperation with North Korea without breaching international sanctions or earning the ire of Trump. Reports from the Chinese-North Korean border suggest that Chinese authorities have already lost much of their enthusiasm for enforcing existing sanctions.

Denyer reported from Beijing.

Read more:

What did the Korean leaders talk about on those park benches? Trump, mainly.

Talk of peace with North Korea has the South wondering: Will this time be different? 

Did you hear the one about the North Korean leader, the $100 bill and the trump card?

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Read Again https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korean-leader-kim-jong-un-meets-chinese-president-xi-again/2018/05/08/03b22a5a-52b1-11e8-b00a-17f9fda3859b_story.html

Bagikan Berita Ini