Chinese Leader Xi Jinping Will Travel To North Korea Next Week In First Visit Since 2019
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping will travel to China north korea Next week, both countries announced on Friday that he would make his first visit in nearly seven years.
His trip will be the latest in a series of steps China has taken to strengthen close ties with its nuclear-armed neighbor. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has especially reached out to Russia in recent years. send troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine.
Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
But over the past year, Kim has also been trying to improve ties with China, the North’s largest trading partner and aid provider.
“As North Korea builds closer ties with Russia, China is trying to use Xi’s trip to reassert its influence over Pyongyang and protect its strategic interests in northeast Asia,” said William Yang, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Chinese and North Korean state media said in brief dispatches that Xi would make an official visit from Monday to Tuesday. His last visit It was in June 2019.
Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP
The trip will serve to promote ties and strengthen regional peace and stability, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday.
“The traditional friendly and cooperative relations between China and North Korea continue to develop solidly and steadily, bringing tangible benefits to both countries and people,” spokesman Mao Ning said, using the abbreviation of North Korea’s full name.
The trip is coming in just a few weeks After Xi hosted US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are in Beijing one after the other.
North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has long been a major concern for the United States, which opposes it. The UN imposed economic sanctions on North Korea due to its nuclear and missile development.
The announcement of the trip came a day after North Korea opened the new facility To produce materials for nuclear bombs. It is believed to be a uranium enrichment facility, although North Korea has not confirmed this.
During his visit to the facility, Kim announced plans to “exponentially” strengthen the country’s nuclear forces. Experts say the announcement of the facility hints that Kim is eager to solidify his country’s status as a nuclear-weapons state ahead of Xi’s visit.
Experts say Kim wants to be recognized internationally as a nuclear state so he can demand the lifting of sanctions. They say Kim will push for arms reduction talks with the United States to win concessions in exchange for his country giving up some of its nuclear capabilities.
Kim has been focusing on expanding his nuclear arsenal since taking office. high risk diplomacy Trump collapsed in 2019.
Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to restore diplomacy with Kim, but the North Korean leader said the United States must first abandon its demand for North Korea to denuclearize as a precondition for negotiations.
Analysts will be watching to see what happens if China says anything about calls for North Korea to denuclearize during Xi’s visit.
Xi and Kim met in Beijing in September and pledged to enhance mutual support and cooperation. Kim was in the Chinese capital to attend China’s military parade along with other foreign leaders, including Putin.
Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, have previously thwarted efforts by the United States and others to toughen international sanctions on North Korea despite its banned weapons tests.
At their meeting in Beijing last month, Putin and Xi According to the statement made by the Kremlin, they expressed their opposition to North Korea’s “foreign policy isolation, economic sanctions, military pressure and other methods that pose a threat to its security.”
Embracing the ideas of a “New Cold War” and a multipolar world, Kim has pushed for a more assertive foreign policy by expanding ties with countries confronting the United States.
For Xi, a trip abroad is a relatively rare one. restricted international travel sharply since the COVID-19 outbreak. His last trip abroad was to South Korea last fall for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where he met Trump.
Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea. Associated Press writer Simina Mistreanu contributed from Taipei, Taiwan.
