Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Tuesday for a third time in Beijing, their first meeting since Kim’s Singapore summit with President Trump.
“The two leaders had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on the current development of China-DPRK relations and the situation on the Korean Peninsula,” according Xinhua, a Chinese state-run media outlet, which used the formal acronym for North Korea.
Chinese officials announced Kim’s visit Tuesday, but the Foreign Ministry was tight-lipped about Kim’s overnight trip. It’s the third meeting between the two leaders this year, a flurry of face-to-face diplomacy spurred by the talks between North Korea and the United States. China has been a patron of North Korea since the regime’s inception.
“They agreed to safeguard, consolidate and develop China-DPRK relations, and jointly push forward the sound momentum of peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula to make a positive contribution to safeguarding world and regional peace, stability, prosperity and development,” Xinhua added.
Xi’s first meeting with Kim marked the first known time the North Korean ruler had left the country since 2011. “China has played an active role in promoting the peace process on the Korean Peninsula and will continue to broker negotiations between the US and North Korea,” as the Global Times, another Chinese outlet, put it.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo affirmed Monday that he believes China and Russia are “excited” about the opportunity to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff. “It’s their backyard, after all,” he said during a question-and-answer session at the Detroit Economic Club. “I am sure our interests diverge in certain places there, but the core opportunity to fundamentally reshape how North Korea thinks about itself and its place in the community of nations — both Russia and China are fully on board with our effort.”
Pompeo has proposed that North Korea denuclearize in exchange for security assurances and the chance of economic development and a “close partners[hip]” with the United States. But, if China does help induce North Korea to denuclearize, Xi has an interest in making sure that Kim doesn’t agree to terms too favorable to the United States. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., suggested recently that Xi would ask Kim to demand a U.S. withdrawal from South Korea, for instance.
“China also wants a say when it comes to North Korean policy, especially its economic policies,” Oriana Skylar Mastro, a China scholar at Georgetown University, told Vox in March. “They no longer want to be notified after Kim makes a substantive policy decision.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry was mum about the plans for Kim’s latest visit. “I know you would like to have more information on Chairman Kim Jong Un’s visit,” spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters Tuesday. “So please keep following the news. The Chinese side will release relevant information in a timely manner. Everything will be clear by then.”
