BEIJING (NYTIMES) – With a dose of mystery and the flair of a showman, North Korea’s young leader, Mr Kim Jong Un, used his debut as an international statesman on Wednesday (March 28) to present himself as confident, reasonable – and willing to bargain..
BEIJING (NYTIMES) – With a dose of mystery and the flair of a showman, North Korea’s young leader, Mr Kim Jong Un, used his debut as an international statesman on Wednesday (March 28) to present himself as confident, reasonable – and willing to bargain.
Mr Kim’s surprise two-day visit to Beijing, his first known trip abroad since taking power, was effectively a reminder of how much he has set the agenda in the crisis over his nation’s nuclear arsenal – and of what a strong hand he has going into talks, first with President Moon Jae In of South Korea next month and later with President Donald Trump.
Mr Kim has yet to say what concessions he is willing to make, or what he may demand from the United States in return.
But he continued to dominate the diplomatic process, reaffirming his willingness to meet with Mr Trump and repeating his vague commitment to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula in talks with President Xi Jinping of China, according to Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency.
During Mr Trump’s first year in office, Mr Kim raced ahead with breakthrough tests of missiles capable of hitting the US mainland and what he claimed was a missile-ready hydrogen bomb.
Then he abruptly changed course and used the Winter Olympics to seize the initiative, surprising the world with a rapprochement with the South and then an offer to meet with Mr Trump.
Through it all, the Trump administration has been largely relegated to reacting and catching up to Mr Kim.
And so it was again this week, when Mr Kim suddenly showed up in China on an armoured train and was shown beaming next to Mr Xi, whose cooperation has been critical to Mr Trump’s strategy of “maximum pressure” on the North.
The state media in China and North Korea announced the meeting on Wednesday, after two days of secrecy.
In images and in words, Mr Kim and Mr Xi signalled that they had repaired the relationship between their countries, which had soured as Mr Kim had accelerated his nuclear programme and Mr Xi had responded by endorsing – and enforcing – more punishing sanctions proposed by the United States.
“The friendship between North Korea and China that was personally created and nurtured together by former generations of leaders from both our sides is unshakable,” Mr Kim told Mr Xi, according to Xinhua.
Mr Xi went out of his way to recall the warm friendship between his father, a high-ranking Communist Party official from the Mao era, and Mr Kim’s father, Mr Kim Jong Il, the North’s previous leader.
It is too soon to say whether the meeting marks a softening of China’s posture toward Mr Kim Jong Un or of its commitment to international sanctions against North Korea.
But the visit served to highlight Beijing’s unique leverage over North Korea, even as Mr Trump is threatening China with a trade war.
Mr Trump can talk about maintaining “maximum pressure” on the North, but ultimately China – the North’s main trade partner – still decides what that means, because it can choose how strictly to enforce sanctions.
“China is saying to the United States and the rest of the world: Anyone who wants a deal on anything on the future of the Korean Peninsula, and certainly something which deals with nukes, don’t think you can walk around us, guys,” Mr Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister who is on good terms with the Chinese leadership, said in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
