Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Jan. 8, 2019, in this photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. (For use only in the Republic of Korea. No redistribution) (Yonhap)
Chinese Emperor President Xi has decided to make a visit to the vassal allied state of North Korea this week:
This photo printed in the Jan. 10, 2019, edition of North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) posing for a photo with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Jan. 8.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to North Korea this week, the North’s state media reported Monday, marking his first trip to Pyongyang since becoming president.
Xi is scheduled to pay a two-day visit to North Korea from Thursday at the invitation of its leader Kim Jong-un, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
It will be the first visit by a Chinese leader to its communist neighbor in 14 years. Though Xi visited North Korea in 2008, he was China’s vice president at that time.
You can read more at the link, but this could be a sign that Kim Jong-un is preparing to agree to another summit with President Trump because Kim has traveled to China before other summits with the U.S. President.
As it turns out Emperor President Xi will not visit South Korea on this way to Japan for the G20 summit:
Chinese President Xi Jinping won’t visit South Korea on the occasion of the upcoming G-20 summit in Japan, a government official here said Friday. “President Xi is not coming to South Korea” just before or after his trip to Osaka for the June 28-29 G-20 session, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The confirmation came amid multiple news reports here that Xi is expected to travel to South Korea on his way to Osaka or after travelling there. A Cheong Wa Dae official indicated that President Moon Jae-in instead has a plan to sit down with Xi on the sidelines of the G-20.
City of Changchun rolls out propaganda subway train dedicated to the political doctrine of Xi Jinping. The municipal government described the train as a “highly condensed spiritual manual” of “Xi Jinping Thought.” https://t.co/Jc9Nwoap4Vpic.twitter.com/z6LAaFP2N2
#XiJinping did not "invite" #KimJongUn, he summoned him. Kim rulers brag they are Korean nationalists, but they act like vassals to the Chinese. Xi pulled the string, and Fatty the Third came running to Beijing. Kim has gone to China four times, and Xi has gone to Korea no times. https://t.co/oGHHaYxXNH
It looks like a second Trump-Kim summit must be close to becoming a reality because Kim Jong-un is off to China to get his marching orders from Emperor President Xi:
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un (R) and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, leave for China in this photo from the North’s Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 8, 2019. The report said Kim will visit China from Jan. 7-10 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping apparently aiming to coordinate strategies ahead of his possible second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. A special train carrying Kim and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, arrived at a highly secure station in Beijing at around 10:55 a.m. Escorted by Chinese police, he and his entourage headed in prearranged limousines to Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. Kim was accompanied by party, government and military officials, including Kim Yong-chol, a key nuclear negotiator with the United States, and Ri Yong-ho and No Kwang-chol, the country’s foreign and defense ministers, respectively, Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency earlier reported. In footage later unveiled by North Korea’s state TV, Kim Yo-jong, the leader’s younger sister, was also seen among the people leaving for China. She accompanied her brother on his second trip to China in May last year.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) talks to Chinese President Xi Jinping at a banquet in Beijing on June 19, 2018, in this photo carried by North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun the following day. (Yonhap)
North Korea’s top leader Kim Jong-un (2nd from L) and his wife Ri Sol-ju (far L) pose for a photo with Chinese President Xi Jinping (2nd from R) and his wife Peng Liyuan at the state guest house Diaoyutai in Beijing on March 27, 2018, in Beijing, in this photo released by the Rodong Sinmun, the North’s ruling party newspaper, on March 28. After days of secrecy amid signs of such a meeting, the two countries confirmed that Kim traveled to Beijing from March 25-28 at Xi’s invitation. This is Kim’s first known overseas trip since taking power in late 2011. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
Here is the latest on Kim Jong-un’s trip to China this week:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing during an unannounced visit to the Chinese capital from Monday to Tuesday to discuss issues pertaining to the Korean Peninsula and bilateral relations. [YONHAP]North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made an unannounced visit to China from Monday to Tuesday on the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korea and China’s state news media confirmed Wednesday, an international diplomatic debut for a young leader who’s only weeks away from holding summits with Seoul and Washington.
It was Kim’s first known trip outside North Korea since he took power in December 2011 following his father’s death, and his first meeting with another government leader.
Rumors spread quickly Tuesday that either he or another high-level official from Pyongyang was in Beijing for talks with Xi, though neither the North Korean, Chinese or South Korean government gave any confirmation.
Photos uploaded online showed a vintage dark green North Korean train similar to the armored vehicle used by former North Korean leaders arriving in the Chinese capital.
Confirmation that Kim was in Beijing came only after he crossed back into North Korea on Wednesday morning. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim, 34, departed the North on Sunday and arrived in Beijing on Monday.
Upon his arrival, Kim met with Xi in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where they “exchanged views on important matters including the development of DPRK-China friendly relations and the issue of handling the situation on the Korean Peninsula,” according to an English report from KCNA, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
On denuclearization, Kim was quoted by China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency as saying it was his “consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization on the peninsula, in accordance with the will” of his father, Kim Jong-il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, who founded North Korea. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Here is what will be the key to denuclearization talks, what will North Korea demand in return for giving up their nukes:
Neither KCNA nor Xinhua specified Kim’s definition of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, but North Korea watchers have long argued that Pyongyang’s meaning of the term would require Washington’s nuclear umbrella over South Korea and Japan to be removed and American soldiers stationed in the South withdrawn before it could consider giving up its nuclear arsenal.
This goes back to what I have long been saying, both the DPRK and China want to separate the US from the ROK and then eventually Japan. If the North Korean nuclear issue can do this, then this is in China’s interests as they seek region hegemony over Northeast Asia. That is likely why Chinese Premier Xi Jinping wanted to meet with Kim Jong-un to ensure Chinese interests are met during the upcoming negotiations with the ROK and the US and what rewards China would give to North Korea in return for advancing their interests.
