Xi to visit North Korea
Credit to Author: ASSOCIATED PRESS| Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2019 16:18:06 +0000
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to North Korea this week, state media announced Monday, as US talks with North Korea on its nuclear program are at an apparent standstill.
Xi will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during the visit on Thursday and Friday, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said. It said the trip would be the first by a Chinese president in 14 years.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) also announced the visit, but provided no further details.
The visit coincides with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and North Korea, CCTV said. The broadcaster added the leaders will exchange views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
The visit comes as negotiations between the US and North Korea appear to have reached an impasse.
A summit in Vietnam in February between Kim and President Donald Trump failed after the US rejected North Korea’s request for extensive relief from United Nations sanctions in exchange of dismantling its main nuclear complex, a partial disarmament step. Since the summit’s breakdown, no major contacts between the US and North Korea have been announced.
Meanwhile, Kim traveled to the Russian Far East in April for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The move was viewed as aimed at strengthening his leverage over Washington and persuading Moscow to loosen its implementation of the international sanctions against North Korea.
Last month, North Korea fired short-range missiles and other weapons into the sea in an apparent effort to apply pressure on the US.
KCNA reported in April that Kim said he would give the US “till the end of the year” to reach out with further proposals.
Since taking office in 2012, Xi has met with Kim four times in China.
The Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Workers’ Party, made it the fourth item on page 1 in a highlight box, but without a picture.
“Xi Jinping to visit DPRK,” read the headline, using the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The one-sentence story said Xi would be making a state visit “at the invitation of Kim Jong Un,” giving both men’s national and party titles.
The trip by the leader of the North’s key diplomatic ally and main provider of trade and aid has long been awaited, and comes after Kim traveled to China four times for meetings with Xi.
But the Rodong Sinmun’s top item is always about Kim, and it led Tuesday with news that the Venezuelan city of Naguanagua had awarded him its top honor to mark the one-year anniversary of his Singapore summit with US President Donald Trump.
Nuclear negotiations with Washington have since stalled, with a second summit in Hanoi breaking up as the two sides disagreed over the extent of sanctions relief and what the North would be willing to give up in return.
Analysts say that Xi’s journey was intended as a signal to Trump — with whom he was embroiled in a separate dispute over trade — of his backing for Kim and influence with him.
In Pyongyang, commuters waiting for their trains read about the visit in newsstands at subway stations.
The city’s metro system is one of the deepest in the world, intended for use as a shelter in the event of nuclear war.
AP/AFP
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