BEIJING (AP) — North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping sought to portray strong ties…
BEIJING (AP) — North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping sought to portray strong ties between the long-time allies despite a recent chill as both countries on Wednesday confirmed Kim’s secret trip to Beijing this week.
The visit highlights Beijing and Pyongyang’s efforts to better position themselves by showing they support each other ahead of Kim’s planned meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and President Donald Trump in the coming weeks.
Kim made the unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday at Xi’s invitation, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said, in what was in his first trip to a foreign country since he took power in 2011.
Xi held talks with Kim at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and he and his wife Peng Liyuan hosted a banquet for Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju, Xinhua said. They also watched an art performance together, the news agency said.
Official reports from both countries depicted in effusive terms warm ties between the two leaders in an effort to downplay recent tensions in relations over Kim’s development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.
In these 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 imports of coal, iron ore, seafood and textiles. Pyongyang last year seemingly sought to humiliate Beijing by timing some of its missile tests for major global summits in China, while its state media accused Chinese state-controlled media of “going under the armpit of the U. S.” by criticizing the North.
Xi hailed Kim’s visit as embodying the importance with which the North Korean leader regarded ties with China.
“We speak highly of this visit,” Xi told Kim, according to Xinhua.
For China, the visit also reminds other countries that Beijing remains one of North Korea’s most important allies and is a player not to be sidelined in denuclearization talks. It also projects to the Chinese public that Xi is firmly in charge of steering Beijing’s relations with North Korea in a way that favors China’s interests.
