Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Pyongyang for his state visit on June 20 to much fanfare, including a 21-gun salute at the airport and tens of thousands of North Koreans lined up along the roads to welcome him.
The visit marks the first time in 14 years that a Chinese leader has landed in North Korea. This also makes Xi only the second head of state to visit, aside from South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who came in September 2018.
However, upon greeting each other, Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not hug, nor kiss each other’s cheeks, unlike their predecessors in 2005. Chinese and North Korean leaders in the past, being communist allies, are known to display excessive signs of affection. But not with Xi and Kim.
In fact, the trip was arranged hurriedly, with the Chinese regime only making a public announcement on June 17. Why was the Chinese side in such a rush to convene this meeting?
The timing coincides with Xi and U.S. President Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting at the G20 summit in Japan, where they are poised to restart trade negotiations. It was the first positive sign that the trade dispute might have hopes of a resolution, after tensions escalated in early May when Trump imposed a tariff hike on Chinese imports. The U.S. administration accused the Chinese side of reneging on prior commitments made over months of talks.
Pomp
The two states thus sought to convey a strong relationship.Xi promised to cooperate with North Korea and other related parties to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
According to Chinese state media reports, Kim said: “North Korea wants to learn more from China to promote our economic development.”
Kim also hinted at displeasure with Washington: “In the past year or so, North Korea has taken many positive measures to avoid escalation of the situation, and have managed and controlled the peninsular situation. But we haven’t received an active response from relevant parties,” according to CCTV.
Notably, North Korea’s state news agency did not report on such details.
North Korea’s official newspaper Rodong Sinmun also ran on its June 19 front page an editorial written by Xi, and translated into Korean.
Exchange Needs
North Korea’s economy depends on trade with China; it is the hermit kingdom’s biggest trading partner.Xi and Kim have previously met four times; each of those meetings happened before or after a Trump-Kim meeting.
In March 2018, after Trump agreed to meet with Kim in May, Kim traveled to Beijing and met with Xi for two days. This was the first time Kim met Xi in person.
In January 2019, Kim and his wife Ri Sol-ju visited Beijing, not long before the second Trump-Kim summit in Vietnam.
In exchange, China would supply more economic aid to North Korea, Zhou wrote.
Other observers have made similar predictions.
“If Xi can’t say something to Trump on trade, it would suggest that his visit to Pyongyang was for naught.”