N. Korea, China agree to boost ties amid int'l sanctions

By Yi Whan-woo, Jun Ji-hye

Senior party officials from North Korea and China agreed to boost cooperation, according to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Tuesday.

The agreement was made during talks Ri Su-yong, vice chairman of North’s ruling Workers’ Party had with his Chinese counterpart, Song Tao, minister of the International Department of the party, late Tuesday.

The agreement was seen as a fresh sign that the traditional allies are trying to mend soured ties after the international community imposed its harshest sanctions yet on the North in early March for its fourth nuclear weapons test.

Ri arrived in Beijing earlier in the day for a three-day visit as a special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Song and Ri agreed to “strengthen exchanges and cooperation between the two parties,” the CCP said in a brief statement posted on its website.

The two also agreed on the “promotion of regional peace and stability,” according to the statement.

Ri, the highest-ranking North Korean official to visit China since Pyongyang conducted the nuclear test, Jan. 6, was accompanied by a large delegation.

Government officials and analysts in Seoul speculated that the young North Korean leader sent him to China in order to improve bilateral ties and create a rift in international commitments to the U.N. Security Council’s (UNSC) latest sanctions on Pyongyang.

They also said that Ri may be carrying a message from Kim asking for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“It is likely Ri will discuss the results of the Workers’ Party Congress, including Kim’s announcement of North Korea as a responsible nuclear state,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University.

During the May 6 to 9 congress, Kim Jong-un said his country would not use nuclear weapons unless it was attacked by another nuclear power -- most likely the United States. He also said his country would also strive for “global de-nuclearization.”

“Ri will try to justify Kim Jong-un’s statement and convince China that North Korea was wrongfully punished for its nuclear program in the latest UNSC sanctions,” Kim Yong-hyun said.

The UNSC approved Resolution 2270 in March in response to the fourth nuclear test. The U.S. and China jointly drafted the resolution.

Park Young-ho, a senior researcher Korea Institute for National Unification, said that Ri was likely carrying a request for a summit.

“The Workers’ Party Congress was aimed at consolidating Kim Jong-un’s leadership but this could have been destabilized in the wake of the UNSC sanctions,” Park said. “Under such circumstances, a summit would be seen as China’s approval of the young North Korean ruler as legitimate successor of the Kim dynasty.”

Noting that China has emphasized dialogue with North Korea, Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said a Pyongyang-Beijing summit was likely.

However, he added that such a meeting would not mean Beijing, Pyongyang’s biggest benefactor, will defy UNSC Resolution 2270 by resuming bilateral trade.

“It’s likely Xi will meet Ri in person and receive Kim’s message. But even if he does so, China will still stick with other countries in their punishment of North Korea,” Yang said.

Ri was North Korea’s ambassador to Switzerland and watched over Kim Jong-un when he went to school there as a teenager.

During the congress, Ri, who had been serving as foreign minister, was promoted to vice chairman of the party and made international relations department director for its Central Committee. He theoretically oversees North Korea’s foreign policy.