China's President Xi to visit North Korea this week

[webfact]

China's President Xi to visit North Korea this week

By Tony Munroe and Huizhong Wu

 

FILE PHOTO: Television screens show Chinese state media CCTV's footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, at an electronics store in Beijing, China January 10, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea for two days from Thursday, state media in both countries reported on Monday, making him the first Chinese leader to visit in 14 years.

 

Neighbouring China is reclusive North Korea's only major ally, and the visit comes amid renewed tensions between the United States and North Korea over efforts to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.

 

"Both sides will exchange views on the (Korean) peninsula situation, and push for new progress in the political resolution of the peninsula issue," China's official broadcaster CCTV said in a lengthy report that led the evening news.

 

The invitation was made by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, state media in both countries said.

 

Since a failed summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim in Hanoi earlier this year, Pyongyang has resumed some weapons tests and warned of "truly undesired consequences" if the United States is not more flexible.

 

Xi's visit kicks off a flurry of high-level diplomatic activity around the Korean peninsula, with Trump set to visit ally South Korea after the G20 summit this month in Osaka, Japan.

 

South Korean President Moon Jae-in's office said he and Xi would hold talks during the G20.

 

The visit also comes against a backdrop of mounting acrimony between Beijing and Washington over trade and other issues.

 

VISIT LONG EXPECTED

Kim has made four visits to China since March 2018, CCTV reported. The first, conducted largely in secret, was his first known trip abroad since he assumed power in June 2011.

 

Diplomats had long expected Xi to visit Pyongyang; one Western diplomat in Beijing said it was likely that the Chinese leader had a standing invitation, and had chosen to take it up with the G20 summit approaching: "It's Xi showing Trump that China still has an important card to play - North Korea."

 

This year marks the 70th year since China and North Korea established diplomatic ties, CCTV noted.

 

Kim and Trump held a summit last year in Singapore and one in Hanoi this year, but hopes for rapid progress towards denuclearisation have faded.

 

The United States demands that North Korea make verifiable progress toward giving up its nuclear weapons before any sanctions are eased, while North Korea says the United States has done nothing to reward the steps it has already taken.

 

Kim has met with Moon three times, most recently in September 2018. Spokeswoman Ko Min-jung said the presidential Blue House expected Xi's trip to contribute to "an early restart of negotiations aimed at achieving complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and to establishing lasting peace".

 

North Korea and U.S-supported South Korea have been locked in an armed standoff since their 1950-53 war ended in a truce, but not a peace treaty.

The last Chinese leader to visit North Korea was Hu Jintao in 2005.

 

(Reporting by Huizhong Wu, Tony Munroe, Se Young Lee and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Editing by Nick Macfie and Kevin Liffey)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-06-18

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[Tug]

What!!! Is our Donald going to get a wake up call does little Kim have a new paramour lol first putin now ping what!! Donald will be devistated lol

[bendejo]

No doubt they will be swapping DT jokes.

 

"How does DT change a lightbulb?"

Oh wait, does NK have electricity?

 

 

[neeray]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Kim has made four visits to China since March 2018, CCTV reported. The first, conducted largely in secret, was his first known trip abroad since he assumed power in June 2011.

I read ThaiVisa for both knowledge and entertainment. I'm not sure which way to classify

this "first known trip abroad".

Previously, I wasn't aware that crossing a river is referred to as "abroad".

 

Learn something new everyday.

[neeray]

47 minutes ago, Tug said:

What!!! Is our Donald going to get a wake up call does little Kim have a new paramour lol first putin now ping what!! Donald will be devistated lol

Yes Tug, Donald is going to be some pissed when he learns that Xi plans to ignore his sanctions.

I remember how difficult it was to handle when my little childhood friendships got shattered. That puppy love thing runs pretty deep in "a child".

 

"Are we tired of winning yet"?

[Tug]

59 minutes ago, neeray said:

Yes Tug, Donald is going to be some pissed when he learns that Xi plans to ignore his sanctions.

I remember how difficult it was to handle when my little childhood friendships got shattered. That puppy love thing runs pretty deep in "a child".

 

"Are we tired of winning yet"?

I was thinking something similar China has no reason to help us out nice negotiating Donald (not)incompetent fool

[Srikcir]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

The last Chinese leader to visit North Korea was Hu Jintao in 2005.

Xi's visit is almost an exact same scenario.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/10/29/2003277849

There is a major difference between Hu's visit and Xi's however.

• Kim Jong-il had made certain commitments in six-way talks that included two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US - Now it is only the US & North Korea
• North Korea agreed to a statement of principles that could potentially end the prolonged standoff - Now there are no statement of principles

Also

• in 2005 China then wasn't engaged with the U.S. in a "tariff war"
• In 2010 China became the world’s second-largest economy
• in 2012 China exceeded the United States as the world’s largest trading nation
• from 2005 to 2014 China grew its military budget by an average rate of about 9.5% every year as the second-highest military spender in the world

China is now less likely to allow the U.S. dominate its foreign policies so far as North Korea is concerned.