North Korea sends special envoy to China

BEIJING: A top North Korean general and confidant of leader Kim Jong-Un met a senior Chinese official in Beijing yesterday, with relations between the allies strained ahead of a China-US summit.
Choe Ryong-Hae, director of the Korean People’s Army politburo, is a “special envoy” of the North’s young leader, Pyongyang’s official news agency said.
He met Wang Jiarui, head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, said Beijing’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, to “exchange views on the situation on the Korean peninsula and other issues of common interest.” Hong gave no details.
China is the North’s sole major ally and chief economic benefactor. But the relationship has been sorely tested in recent months by Pyongyang’s refusal to heed Beijing’s warnings against provoking the international community with its nuclear and missile program.
China has long been the North’s main diplomatic protector. But it sided with the rest of the UN Security Council in imposing sanctions after the North’s long-range rocket test last December and its nuclear test in February.
The measures triggered a dangerous cycle of escalating military tensions on the Korean peninsula, during which China came under enormous US-led pressure to rein in a wayward ally threatening nuclear strikes against the US and South Korea.
Choe is believed to be the highest-ranking N. Korean party official to visit China since Kim’s late father and predecessor Kim Jong-Il in August 2011.
Kim Jong-Un has not visited since taking power in December 2011 but sent his uncle Jang Song-Thaek, a powerful figure in the inner circle, to Beijing in August last year.
Northeast Asia expert Wang Dong of Peking University called Choe’s trip a “somewhat encouraging sign” that Pyongyang might be open to talks, but warned it was still taking provocative steps such as firing short-range missiles.
“The question of course will be how serious N. Korea will be,” he said.
Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul’s University of N. Korean Studies said the timing was significant ahead of a June 7-8 summit between US President Barack Obama and China’s new leader Xi Jinping.
And S. Korea’s new President Park Geun-Hye is expected to hold a summit with Xi in Beijing in late June.
“Choe is Kim Jong-Un’s closest confidant, so Kim is sending his highest possible envoy to China ahead of the US summit,” Yang told AFP.
“This will be Kim’s way to deliver his message to Obama concerning peace on the Korean peninsula and the nuclear issue,” he added.
Seoul and Washington have held out the prospect of talks with Pyongyang, but only if it shows a firm commitment to abandoning its nuclear weapons program.