Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Xi, the first Chinese leader to visit North Korea in 14 years, would meet the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, on Thursday and Friday.
North Korea’s official KCNA also announced the visit, but gave no details.
“Both sides will exchange views on the [Korean] peninsula situation, and push for new progress in the political resolution of the peninsula issue,” CCTV said of Xi’s visit, which coincides with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and North Korea.
While North Korea has not tested nuclear weapons or long-range missiles since Kim’s doomed summit with Donald Trump in Hanoi in February, it has resumed tests of smaller weapons and warned of “truly undesired consequences” if the US is not more flexible.
The Hanoi summit broke down amid disagreements over how far the North should go in dismantling its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.
Washington has demanded that North Korea make verifiable progress toward giving up its nuclear weapons before any sanctions are lifted, while the North says the US has failed to reward it for the steps it has already taken.
The White House said Xi’s visit proved that the world’s focus was still on North Korean denuclearisation. “Our goal is to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearisation of (North Korea) as agreed to by Chairman Kim,” a White House official told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
Xi’s visit to Pyongyang comes ahead of Trump’s trip to South Korea after the G20 summit in the Japanese city of Osaka at the end of June.
The office of the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, said it hoped Xi’s visit would end the nuclear standoff. “We hope that this visit will contribute to the early resumption of negotiations for the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula which will lead to the settlement of lasting peace on the Korean peninsula,” it said.
Negotiations between the US and North Korea appear to have reached an impasse. The Hanoi summit broke down without an agreement after the US rejected North Korea’s request for extensive relief from UN sanctions in exchange for dismantling its main nuclear complex – a partial disarmament step. Since then, the US and North Korea have not held any working-level talks.
Trump, however, said recently he had received another “beautiful” letter from Kim, and has played down the North’s short-range missile tests.
Last month, North Korea fired short-range missiles and other weapons into the sea in an apparent effort to apply pressure on the US.
Kim has made four visits to China – his country’s biggest economic partner – since March last year. His meetings with Xi took place around the time of his talks with Trump and Moon, highlighting Beijing’s role as a key player in the nuclear standoff.
“The signal would be that China remains a critical stakeholder,” said Jingdong Yuan, a professor specialising in Asia-Pacific security and Chinese foreign policy at the University of Sydney, said od Xi’s visit to Pyongyang.
“You cannot ignore China and China can play a very important role,” he said, adding that Xi could thus use the trip as a “bargaining chip” in the US-China trade war.
In April, Kim travelled to the Russian far east for a meeting with 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 the North.
KCNA reported in April that Kim said he would give the US “until the end of the year” to reach out with further proposals.
Chinese political scholar Zhang Lifan said the aim of Xi’s trip is likely not to make any breakthroughs, but rather to remind other countries of China’s unique position.
Zhang said Beijing may be seeking to gain leverage ahead of a G20 summit in Japan later this month and reassert itself as a global player amid growing concerns over its economy.
“North Korea is a card for China to play,” Zhang said. “China may want to show off its relationship with North Korea and demonstrate its importance to US-North Korean relations.”
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