China's influence on North Korea grows
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un toasts together with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People during his visit to Beijing, Tuesday. / Yonhap
By Kim Rahn
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's latest visit to China suggests Beijing's growing influence on the denuclearization talks, analysts said Wednesday.
Kim made a two-day visit to China from Tuesday to Wednesday and met Chinese President Xi Jinping. It was his third trip to the longtime ally in three months; while the Chinese president has not yet visited Pyongyang.
Kim's two earlier visits were made before his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as if he and Xi had strategic get-togethers about the denuclearization deal with the U.S. This visit, too, was made when Pyongyang and Washington were planning follow-up talks on details of denuclearization after Kim's summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore, June 12.
According to North Korean and Chinese media, Wednesday, Kim and Xi reaffirmed their close cooperation in the denuclearization process.
“Cooperation between North Korea and China clearly shows the relationship between the two nations is developing into an unprecedentedly special one beyond the traditional one,” the (North) Korean Central News Agency reported.
Xinhua News Agency quoted Xi as saying Kim's visit to China showed “the great importance he attaches to the strategic communication between the two parties and two countries.”
Xi also called on North Korea and the U.S. to implement the outcome of the Trump-Kim summit, and other relevant countries to make concentrated efforts for the peace process, noting China would continue to play a constructive role to this end.
Such remarks from Kim and Xi indicate Kim's visit will help China _ North Korea's longtime and almost only ally _ gain more leverage in talks over the North's denuclearization and regime security guarantee, as well as over establishing a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
It also removed China's earlier concerns of being sidelined in the denuclearization talks.
“To China, who takes the initiative in peninsula issues is more important than denuclearization of the peninsula, so it will make use of North Korea in its competition with the U.S.” professor Lee Dong-ryul from Dongduk Women's University said.
“Kim also needs to have someone to depend on in his venture toward denuclearization and gaining a security guarantee,” he added.
The U.S. has apparently shown discomfort with North Korea getting closer to China, with which it is vying for a greater presence in Northeast Asia.
After Kim's second visit to China, Trump said “there was a somewhat different attitude (with Kim) after that meeting,” implying Xi was pulling the strings for Pyongyang's negotiating strategy.
Trump even once cancelled the Singapore summit; which was then held as scheduled after North Korea confirmed it was willing to talk with the U.S. at anytime.
Kim's third visit was also made on the day when South Korea and the U.S. announced they would suspend their August joint military exercise as part of measures to guarantee the North's regime security.
Pyongyang suspending its nuclear and missile testing and South Korea and the U.S. suspending their joint exercises ― the so-called “double freeze” ― was the main proposal from China in resolving the nuclear issue.
Therefore, it was suspected that Kim demanded the suspension of the exercise to Trump during their summit, following Xi's advice ― something Trump has denied.
Experts in the U.S. forecast that if China's presence in the deal grows, it may call for suspension of more joint exercises or even the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea as the denuclearization deal progresses.