Kim’s first trip abroad as North Korean leader may have been aimed at shoring up his relationship with an ally ahead of his planned summit with Trump.
Kim Jong Un’s long, slow train journey from Pyongyang to Beijing was an attempt for the dictator and his host to gain leverage ahead of the North Korean leader’s summit with President Donald Trump, according to experts.
Kim’s trip to meet with the country’s oldest and only real ally has been shrouded in mystery. Little is known about what was discussed between the two leaders other than an official statement published through China’s state-run media. Feverish speculation has spread among analysts in the region over what is likely to come out of it, and what it means for the proposed summit between Trump and Kim in May.
„It seems China was not comfortable with the idea of Kim meeting with Moon (Jae-In, South Korea’s President) and Trump before having ever met with Xi,“ said Paul Haenle, a former China affairs director for both President George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s National Security Council and the current director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy on Beijing, in a statement.
From a North Korean perspective, it may also have made sense to shore up their sometimes fractious relationship with Beijing ahead of any U. S. meeting, Haenle added. „Kim may have felt he had secured some leverage against Xi having independently secured summits with Trump and Moon,“ he said.
„He’ll now feel more confident knowing where things stand with Beijing heading into those same meetings.“
Kim’s visit comes just weeks after China’s rubber-stamp parliament voted to abolish term limits, effectively allowing President Xi Jinping to rule the superpower indefinitely. It also comes amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington over trade, with Trump announcing new tariffs on imported steel and aluminium from China earlier this month.
Cristina Varriale, a research analyst specializing in proliferation and nuclear policy at the London-based Royal United Services Institute told NBC News this week’s visit could help ensure China plays a much more active role in any denuclearization agreement.
