By Kang Seung-woo
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged all parties to remain calm and exercise restraint on the Korean Peninsula in a meeting with a visiting North Korean delegation, Wednesday, according to China’s Xinhua news agency.
Xi met Ri Su-yong, head of the delegation who made a surprise visit to Beijing with a large entourage, Tuesday. This was the first time in about three years for Xi to meet senior North Korean officials since he met Choe Ryong-hae, who visited there in May 2013 as the North Korean leader’s special envoy.
During this meeting, Ri, a vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, also delivered a verbal message from his boss Kim Jong-un expressing the hope for the two countries to work together to strengthen and develop their traditional friendly relations and maintain regional peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.
Xi said China “attaches great importance” to its bilateral ties with North Korea and Beijing was willing to work with Pyongyang to “reinforce and develop” bilateral relations, according to the report.
Ri’s visit to China may pave the way for a meeting between Kim and Xi, analysts said.
The visit may be aimed at turning around soured bilateral relations following the North’s nuclear tests in 2013 and 2016, with Beijing backing international sanctions against the repressive state.
There has been no meeting between the two leaders since Kim took power in December 2011.
“The two nations see the need to address the deepening rift and to this end, the North will seek to arrange a trip to China for Kim,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.
Yang predicted that Kim may travel to China between August and October, citing China’s upcoming events.
“This year marks the 95th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China and the 55th anniversary of the mutual aid and cooperation friendship treaty between the two sides. In this respect, high-ranking official exchanges are expected to take place and they may lead to Kim’s first summit with Xi,” Yang said.
Ko Yoo-hwan, a North Korean studies professor at Dongguk University, also said that Ri’s visit has to do with the North’s pursuit of a summit.
“Five years have passed since Kim came to power, but Kim has never had a chance to meet Xi, and relations with China are worsening. In order to get the ties back on track, Ri will seek a first summit between Kim and Xi,” Ko said.
There is some skepticism that North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons may prevent Kim from meeting Xi because it will be a burden to China, which has vowed to fully implement United Nations (U.N.) sanctions imposed on the North for its internationally-condemned nuclear tests.
Richard Bush, a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution, told Radio Free Asia, Wednesday, that there is little chance that Ri would show a forward-looking stance on the nuclear program.
Prof. Ko also said, “Should President Xi hold a summit with Kim, it would be interpreted as China acknowledging the North as a nuclear state.”
However, Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University, said that the North would adopt “tactical flexibility” to convince China.
“The North may maintain that it is open to discussing global denuclearization or denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula rather than its own denuclearization and China may accept it,” Chang said.
Ri’s visit came as the international community’s sanctions on the North are intensifying.
The latest punishment came from the European Union last week, as it expanded the list of goods banned from being sold to the North; tightened financial sanctions on the country; and banned North Korean planes and vessels from entering EU territory.
“The North plans to take advantage of better ties with China to ease or avoid intensifying international sanctions on the back of Beijing’s support,” Chang said.
Following the 2013 nuclear test, China joined the U.N. sanctions to punish the North, but later Kim sent Choe Ryong-hae to China as a special envoy and China changed its stance to opposing harsh international sanctions on the North.