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| North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju inspect an honor guard in Pyongyang before departing for China, Monday. Kim will be traveling for four days and plans to hold a fourth summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. / Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has embarked on a pre-summit diplomacy mission by making a surprise visit to China ahead of his anticipated second meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Kim's four-day travel to Beijing from Monday is a clear indicator that the Washington-Pyongyang summit is around the corner, as North Korea has for decades pushed for a strategy of bringing in China when solving conundrums on the Korean Peninsula.
By holding a fourth summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kim will likely discuss ways for the North to gain leverage in the upcoming denuclearization talks with the U.S.
The talks have remained locked in a stalemate since the first summit between Trump and Kim in June; the U.S. has since urged the North to take verifiable steps for the dismantlement of its major nuclear facilities, which the North called a "unilateral demand" from the U.S., which has not taken any "corresponding" measures in exchange for the regime's efforts toward peace and denuclearization of the peninsula.
But starting this year, Trump and Kim exchanged their bilateral willingness to stop the ongoing deadlock in negotiations and hold their second summit for a breakthrough.
Experts said Kim's visit to China signals the North's preparation for the summit with the U.S. is in full swing.
"North Korea needs China's diplomatic influence to carry out negotiations with the U.S. on equal footing," Shin Beom-chul, senior director of the research division at Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said Tuesday.
"The U.S. wants to continue pressing the North by reinforcing sanctions on it, but the latter cannot handle the intensifying pressure on its own," the expert said. "Against the backdrop, what the North wants is the Chinese power in international relations."
Kim adopted the same strategy ahead of his first summit with Trump. In May, the North Korean leader met with Xi in China, in a move to take advantage of Chinese diplomatic power and possibly discuss the pre-summit agenda ahead of the historic U.S.-North Korea summit in June.
"The U.S. may view the Kim-Xi meeting as a negative factor ahead of the second Washington-Pyongyang summit, as Beijing is in a trade war with Washington," Shin said.
"On top of that, Trump criticized the China-North Korea summit in May. What is interesting is that a vice-minister-level talk between the U.S. and China takes place for two days from Tuesday in Beijing, which falls in the same period of time for Kim's China visit," the expert said.
"This can be seen as China's signal that North Korea is one of its diplomatic cards against the U.S."
In a New Year address, North Korea, for its part, also threatened to take a new path unless Trump stops intensifying sanctions and pressure against the North. Kim also expressed his strong willingness to tighten the North's alliance with China, as part of efforts to seek a breakthrough in the ongoing peace affairs on the peninsula.
"In this year's address, Kim mentioned China much more than those from the previous years, which shows Kim's determination to team up with China and deal with intensifying pressure from the U.S. in their denuclearization talks."
Lim Eul-chul, professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University, said China would also welcome Kim's ongoing gesture, as the country wants to show off its political influence on the peninsula.
"China will likely continue looking for ways to play a part in the inter-Korean affairs, as this will raise its political power in Asia," he said.
"Kim unveiled his hopes to hold multinational talks with the U.S. and China during the New Year address, but a trilateral summit is unlikely to take place in the very near future. But this can be realized sometime after the second Washington-Pyongyang summit."
