North Korea leader Kim Jong Un visits China: Bloomberg

[webfact]

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un visits China: Bloomberg

By Ben Blanchard

 

FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves to people attending a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of country's founding father, Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, April 15, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea leader Kim Jong Un has visited China, Bloomberg reported on Monday citing three unnamed sources, in what would be his first known overseas trip since taking power in 2011 and ahead of a potential summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

 

Details of his visit including its purpose and itinerary were not yet known, Bloomberg said. Japanese media reported earlier on Monday that a high-ranking Pyongyang official appeared to have arrived by train in Beijing.

 

Kyodo, citing sources close to the matter, said the visit of the official was intended to improve ties between Beijing and Pyongyang that have been frayed by North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and China's backing of tough sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations Security Council.

 

The visit could not immediately be confirmed by Reuters.

 

Footage from Nippon News Network, owned by Nippon TV, showed what an announcer described as a green train carriage with yellow horizontal lines, part of a 21-car train, similar to the kind that Kim's late father, Kim Jong Il, rode when he visited Beijing in 2011.

 

Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive and isolated North Korea. But Kim is due to hold summit meetings separately with China's rivals, South Korea and the United States.

 

"Such a visit would reflect China's effort to get back in the game," said Scott Snyder, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank. "Xi would not tolerate being third in line to meet Kim."

 

Asked earlier at a daily news briefing about reports of an important North Korean visitor arriving at the Chinese border city of Dandong, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was unaware of the situation.

 

Nobody answered the telephone at the North Korean embassy in Beijing on Monday evening.

 

"The government is closely communicating with relevant countries and monitoring the situation," South Korea's presidential Blue House said in a statement via a messaging app earlier on Monday.

 

Asked about the report that Kim was in China, White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters on Monday: "We can't confirm those reports. We don't know if they're necessarily true."

 

Kyodo, citing sources, reported that on Sunday, a special train that might have carried the official passed through Dandong. Two sources in northeastern China also told Reuters that a North Korean visitor had crossed into Dandong by train.

 

The rail journey between Dandong and Beijing covers more than 1,100 km (680 miles). It takes at least 14 hours by ordinary service, according to Chinese railway timetables.

 

HEAVY SECURITY

 

On Chinese social media some residents of Dandong said there had been high security around the train station there and said there were rumours that Kim was passing through.

 

Police tightened security along Beijing's main east-west thoroughfare, Changan Avenue, mid-afternoon Monday, closing off the entrances to some of the buildings which face the road.

 

Police also cleared out all tourists from Tiananmen Square around the same time, which normally only happens when important meetings are happening in the Great Hall of the People, where top Chinese leaders often meet visiting heads of state.

 

There was a large security presence outside the Great Hall on Monday evening. Reuters reporters saw a lengthy motorcade, including a limousine with dark tinted windows, heading down Changan Avenue in the direction of the Diaoyutai State Guest House and away from the Great Hall of the People, flanked by a police escort on motor-bikes.

 

Also on Monday evening, the Beijing railway bureau warned on its microblog, without giving a reason, of multiple train delays of up to two hours in the Beijing region.

 

A source with ties to the Chinese military told Reuters that it was "not possible to rule out the possibility" that Kim was visiting Beijing, but cautioned this was not confirmed.

 

A diplomatic source told Reuters that there was heavy security around the Diaoyutai State Guest House, where some high level foreign visitors stay during visits to the city. Other diplomatic sources said they were aware of the speculation that Kim was visiting but were not able to immediately confirm it.

 

Visits to China by Kim Jong Il were only confirmed by both China and North Korea once he had left the country.

 

Kim Jong Il travelled by private train during his rare visits to China or Russia under tight security. Diplomats and other sources have said Kim Jong Il avoided flying for overseas trips due to security concerns.

 

The younger Kim, who was educated in Switzerland, is not known to have any fear of flying and state media have shown pictures of him aboard a plane. However, he is not known to have travelled outside the country since assuming power in late 2011 after his father's death.

 

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard, Sue-Lin Wong, Philip Wen and Se Young Lee; Additional reporting by Christine Kim in Seoul, Malcolm Foster in Tokyo, Roberta Rampton, David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Tom Brown)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-03-27

[tifino]

 

gone to get his puppet strings tweaked, 

and then get some coaching on how to better yank on a yank's strings, without being too obvious

 

oh! and maybe a few 'wires' implanted Cartman-style, to let the PRC Politburo listen in remotely

[lannarebirth]

34 minutes ago, car720 said:

Interesting considering the Chinese love of great ceremony.

No face in arriving by train.  Anything else could have been done on the phone.

More symbolic than anything else. The US doesn't want China calling the tune in any possible NK talks with the US. China doesn't want a re-unification of the Koreas, A US presence in NK or a SK and Japan bolstering it's miltlary. It looks like China will try to sabotage any kind of deal if they can and they probably can. Or impose themselves as an intermediary to forestall Japan and SK and the act as NK's chief apologists when things don't go to plan.

Edited March 27, 2018 by lannarebirth

[Thaidream]

The solution to the Korean issue runs through China and America knows it.  china does not want reunification unless it is under Kim's agenda which is not going to happen.

 

The best we can hope for is a peace treaty ending the Korean War signed by all participants and an agreement that freezes the Korean nuclear program in which China takes control of Korean nukes and guarantees the agreement.  America gets the right of inspection but most likely has to withdraw its forces from the Peninsula. American forces could be relocated to either Vietnam; Japan or Singapore.

 

The problem is going to be with  Bolton who wants an agreement in which America dismantles the N Korea nuclear program and transports it back to the US ala Libya. Kim will never agree with this for obvious reasons.

[samran]

No doubt he’s there to receive orders and get lessons on how to flatter The Donald’s huge ego when they meet. 

[lannarebirth]

Longshot prediction. The culmination of the NK talks end up, in time, with sanctions...on China.

[mrwebb8825]

Kim is just plain scared. He made a bold bluff and was called on it. He's never met with anyone who wasn't afraid of him. Now he wants China to agree to protect him because he was informed during the visit by Moon that Xi was NOT invited to his meeting with President Trump.

Funny how this trip came shortly after President Trump slapped Xi in the face with tariffs. At only $60 billion, it was largely symbolic but, I believe, meant to show Kim that Moon meant what he said about the "guest-list" for the upcoming meeting.