Kim, Xi discuss strengthening tie: Pyongyang
Chinese President Xi Jinping, center right, and his wife Peng Liyuan, right, meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center left, and his wife Ri Sol-ju, left, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, Wednesday. AP-Yonhap
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed ways to further strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation in their latest talks, North Korean state media reported Thursday.
Kim wrapped up his two-day visit to Beijing on Wednesday, during which the leaders held two rounds of talks. It was his third visit in about three months.
"The top leaders of the DPRK and China exchanged serious views on the present situation and urgent international issues and discussed issues to further strengthen the strategic and tactical cooperation between the two parties and the two countries under a new situation," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
DPRK is the abbreviation for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Kim's visit came a week after his historic meeting with Trump in Singapore on June 12 in which he affirmed his commitment to complete denuclearization and the two longtime foes agreed to build "new" bilateral relations.
His trip is seen as an apparent bid to strengthen bilateral ties with China ahead of the North's high-level talks with the U.S. to discuss the details of how to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.
China also appears to be working hard not to be marginalized in the fast-paced nuclear diplomacy surrounding the Korean Peninsula by bringing the North closer to its side after years of chilled relations over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile provocations.
The KCNA also reported Kim visited the Sci-tech Innovation Institute under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and toured a traffic control center, along with automated systems for the subway on Wednesday.
"Saying that he admires at the high-level automation and good combined control system of the centre, he hoped that the center would further develop into a world-level traffic control center and make a greater progress," the KCNA said.
His tour of such facilities is being interpreted as a reflection of the North's growing interest in reforming its agricultural sector and building the necessary infrastructure for economic development.
The KCNA said he was accompanied by high-level officials ― Choe Ryong-hae, vice chairman of the North's State Affairs Commission; Prime Minister Pak Pong-ju; Ri Su-yong, vice party chairman on international affairs; and Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party.
Kim also visited North Korea's Embassy in Beijing for the first time since he took power in late 2011, in a move to stress the diplomatic mission's role in facilitating communication and solidifying ties with the North's traditional ally.
Previously, Kim traveled to China and met with Xi in March in his first foreign trip since taking office. The two also met in May ahead of Kim's summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. (Yonhap)