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Kim Jong-un Returns to China, Bolstering Ties With Xi Jinping Kim Pays a Second Surprise Visit to China, Heightening Diplomatic Drama
(about 7 hours later)
DALIAN, China — President Xi Jinping of China met with Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, on Tuesday, for the second time in two months, continuing a flurry of diplomacy over the North’s nuclear program. DALIAN, China — The leaders of China and North Korea met for the second time in two months on Tuesday, staying overnight in this Chinese port city as China worked to regain control in the fast-moving diplomacy over the North’s nuclear program.
The meeting in the Chinese port city of Dalian near the North Korean border, came as China tries to regain a central role in the fast-moving diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula. The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, flew to Dalian on Monday, where he held long rounds of discussions with Chinese officials, attended a formal banquet, and took a stroll on a beachfront sidewalk with China’s president, Xi Jinping. The pageantry was shown at length on China’s state-run evening television news, with the two men looking like friends, if rather stiff ones.
It was announced on China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, which said that Mr. Kim arrived in Dalian on Monday and left on Tuesday. The Chinese leader appeared intent on showing that the frayed relationship with North Korea was now repaired, and that China was as important to resolving the problems of North Korea’s nuclear weapons as the United States.
Xinhua, the official news agency, reported that Mr. Xi and Mr. Kim “took a stroll and attended a luncheon.” It added: “In a cordial and friendly atmosphere, the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries had an all-round and in-depth exchange of views” on relations between their two countries. President Trump has said he will meet with Mr. Kim in the coming weeks, and tweeted hours after the meeting in Dalian that he expected to talk shortly on the phone with Mr. Xi about North Korea, as well as trade.
The visit came just before China’s premier, Li Keqiang, was scheduled to go to Tokyo on Wednesday to meet President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan. The three are expected to discuss North Korean denuclearization among other issues. A Chinese statement, which was issued on behalf of both leaders after Mr. Kim left, showed the differences between the Trump administration on the one hand, and China and North Korea on the other, over the question of how to rid the North of its nuclear weapons.
Chinese analysts had speculated that Mr. Kim went to Dalian to ask Mr. Xi for sanctions relief. At the urging of the Trump administration, China grudgingly voted last year for United Nations sanctions that have hurt the North’s economy, draining its reserves of foreign currency. It envisioned a far more drawn-out process for the denuclearization of North Korea than the demands of the Trump administration, which has talked about dismantling the North’s arsenal in six months to a year.
Mr. Kim recently met Mr. Moon, who is eager to help the North with economic aid. Their meeting also gave the North Korean leader new leverage with Mr. Xi. In essence, Mr. Kim can say that if China does not help ease the North’s economic pain, South Korea will. Mr. Kim wanted “phased and synchronous measures in a responsible manner” and hoped to “eventually achieve denuclearization and lasting peace on the peninsula,” the Chinese statement said.
The two meetings between Mr. Xi and Mr. Kim represent a dramatic change from the frosty period, starting when Mr. Kim took power in 2011, when the two leaders refused to meet each other. The statement said Mr. Kim expressed his “gratitude to China for its longstanding and significant contribution in realizing denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula,” phrasing that seemed to extol China’s role in hosting talks among six countries on North Korea’s nuclear weapons in the mid-2000s. Those talks fell apart, and the Trump administration has been scathing about them.
In unusually positive language, Mr. Xi said that the North Korean leader had come “to meet me again just after 40-odd days” and “at a crucial time when the Korean Peninsula situation is undergoing profound and complex changes,” according to Xinhua. North Korea’s bare-bones economy — which has been long kept afloat by China, but is now being pummeled by United Nations sanctions — featured in the Dalian talks, the statement said. Mr. Kim told the Chinese that he wanted to develop his economy, a move that China said it supported.
Chinese state news outlets made pointed references to the fact that Mr. Kim had stayed overnight, making it a longer visit than the one last month between Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon of South Korea. Chinese analysts speculated that Mr. Kim asked Mr. Xi for relief from the rounds of tough sanctions for which China grudgingly voted last year, at the urging of the United States. Those sanctions have drained the North’s foreign-exchange reserves.
Xinhua quoted Mr. Kim as saying he came to China again to “strengthen strategic communication” with Mr. Xi. Mr. Kim recently met the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, who is eager to help the North with economic aid, although within the bounds of the United Nations sanctions. That meeting gave the North Korean leader new leverage with Mr. Xi.
But Chinese analysts say the warmth between the two leaders should not be overstated, and that Mr. Kim retains his streak of independence. In essence, Mr. Kim can say that if China does not help ease the North’s economic pain, South Korea will.
“North Korea was never a vassal state,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing. It is even less so now that the United States has agreed to deal with Mr. Kim, he said. Mr. Xi was joined in the talks by Wang Huning, one of his close aides, as well as others from the Communist Party hierarchy, and Mr. Kim brought a large retinue of officials, including his foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho.
By meeting Mr. Xi again, Mr. Kim would also most likely be trying to get China’s backing for his diplomatic overtures to President Trump, while assuring China, North Korea’s longtime ally, that it is not being left out of the diplomatic maneuvering with Washington. Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim are expected to meet later this month or in June. Chinese television footage showed the two delegations seated at a long table during formal discussions, with Mr. Xi doing most of the talking.
Hours after Mr. Kim flew home from Dalian, Mr. Trump tweeted that he would speak with Mr. Xi about the visit, as well as trade. The flight from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, to Dalian is under one hour. Even so, the surprise arrival of Mr. Kim was a departure from protocol, which the Chinese usually take pride in following to the letter, said a Chinese analyst, Cheng Xiaohe.
Like Mr. Kim’s visit to Beijing in March, his visit to Dalian was kept under wraps. But early Tuesday afternoon, the Japanese news service Kyodo reported that a plane from the North Korean carrier Air Koryo was at Dalian’s airport. After Mr. Kim’s visit to Beijing at the end of March — his first foreign visit after being in power since 2011 — it was Mr. Xi’s turn to travel to Pyongyang.
Mr. Xi was expected to wait to go to the North Korean capital until after Mr. Trump’s summit with Mr. Kim. But under that schedule, Mr. Xi would have not seen Mr. Kim again until the end of June or July.
It is without modern precedent for a leader to come to China on back-to-back visits as Mr. Kim has done, Mr. Cheng said.
“This second meeting demonstrated that North Korea wanted China to play a larger role in the denuclearization process,” said Mr. Cheng, a professor at Renmin University. “When Kim enters the meeting with Trump, he will feel more confident, simply his positions on a variety of issues were consulted and sanctioned by the Chinese leader.”
But some Chinese analysts said the warmth between the two leaders on display in Dalian — they sat for a while in wicker arm chairs on a bucolic outdoor terrace — should not be overstated. Mr. Kim retains a streak of independence, they said.
“North Korea was never a vassal state,” said Shi Yinhong, also a professor at Renmin University. It is even less of one, now that the United States has agreed to deal with Mr. Kim, he said.
Like Mr. Kim’s visit to Beijing in March, his visit to Dalian was kept under wraps. But early Tuesday afternoon, the Japanese news service Kyodo reported that a plane from the North Korean carrier Air Koryo was at Dalian’s airport. Security at the airport was tight Tuesday afternoon, with flights canceled between 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Chinese officials will be heading to Tokyo for meetings on Wednesday with South Korean and Japanese counterparts as part of the recent burst of diplomacy over North Korea. Japan, the host of the talks, has been pushing the United States to continue a tough line against Pyongyang.Chinese officials will be heading to Tokyo for meetings on Wednesday with South Korean and Japanese counterparts as part of the recent burst of diplomacy over North Korea. Japan, the host of the talks, has been pushing the United States to continue a tough line against Pyongyang.
North Korean state news media on Tuesday criticized Japan for continuing to support tough sanctions against the North, with Rodong Sinmun, the country’s official newspaper, calling it “tantamount to throwing cold water over easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”North Korean state news media on Tuesday criticized Japan for continuing to support tough sanctions against the North, with Rodong Sinmun, the country’s official newspaper, calling it “tantamount to throwing cold water over easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”
But Mr. Moon, who as South Korea’s leader has pushed for engagement with Pyongyang, urged Japan to consider normalizing ties with North Korea.But Mr. Moon, who as South Korea’s leader has pushed for engagement with Pyongyang, urged Japan to consider normalizing ties with North Korea.
“I think dialogue between Japan and North Korea should be resumed,” Mr. Moon said in an interview Tuesday with the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri. “I think dialogue between Japan and North Korea should be resumed,” Mr. Moon said in an interview Tuesday with the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.
“If Japan-North Korea relations are normalized, that would greatly contribute to peace and security in Northeast Asia beyond the Korean Peninsula,” he said in written answers to questions submitted by the newspaper.“If Japan-North Korea relations are normalized, that would greatly contribute to peace and security in Northeast Asia beyond the Korean Peninsula,” he said in written answers to questions submitted by the newspaper.
Dalian was also the site of a 2010 meeting between Mr. Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, and Mr. Li, who is now China’s premier. The city is a short flight or train ride from Pyongyang, making it a convenient venue for talks between the two nations. Dalian was also the site of a 2010 meeting between Mr. Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, and Li Keqiang, China’s premier.
Mr. Kim, apparently not as fearful of flying as his father, traveled by plane. His father came to China by a slow-moving train. Mr. Kim, apparently not as fearful of flying as his father, traveled by plane this time. On his visit to Beijing, he came to China by a slow-moving train, as his father had done.