China's Xi hails deeper understanding at end of North Korea summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up on Tuesday his first visit to North Korea in seven years, saying it had established a deeper, more comprehensive understanding yielding a clearer path for development of ties, the official Xinhua news agency said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Xi agreed to expand cooperation in the areas of politics, economy and culture at a summit in Pyongyang that opened a new chapter in ties, the North’s official KCNA news agency said.

“The mutual understanding between China and North Korea has become deeper and more comprehensive, and the direction of future development has become clearer and more defined,” Xi told his hosts at a luncheon before his departure, Xinhua added.

Kim waved both hands as Xi’s plane taxied down the tarmac, in footage from China’s state broadcaster CCTV, after an enthusiastic send-off by Pyongyang residents, who lined the road to the airport, waving flags and shouting friendship slogans.

Earlier, the leaders jointly planted a fir tree in the grounds of a key political training school for party cadres, which Xinhua said symbolised “ever-renewing friendship”.

On the second day of his visit to China’s only formal treaty ally, Xi had also visited Pyongyang’s Sino-Korean Friendship Tower that commemorates Chinese soldiers who died in the Korean War, the agency added.

Both agreed to strive for closer strategic communication through visits by high-level officials, KCNA said.

Kim told Xi he would fully support the “One China principle,” which Beijing views as meaning that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one country, regardless of changes in the international situation, it added.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under Beijing’s control, although Taipei rejects the sovereignty claims.

Analysts see contrasting priorities

Despite the expressions of goodwill, analysts saw contrasting priorities in the official summaries of the visit.

While Xinhua detailed proposals ranging from high-level exchanges to trade and agriculture, along with restoration of transport links, KCNA cast the summit more broadly as a pact of equal partners, the analysts said.

Pyongyang stressed regime dignity and the neighbours’ “special relationship,” added Lim Eul-chul, a professor at South Korea’s Kyungnam University, while Beijing emphasised practical state-to-state ties and its initiatives for international order.

“North Korea removed elements that could make it look like a subordinate, dependent or beneficiary party, and rewrote the relationship as one between equals,” said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

“It amplified signals of solidarity, such as anti-US and Taiwan-related messages, while erasing signals of dependence or subordination.”

China is North Korea’s biggest trade partner and analysts have said Xi’s trip could focus on trade and tourism.

Patriotic songs

Xi and first lady Peng Liyuan attended a performance of Chinese and North Korean songs, accompanied by Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, that highlighted “the value and closeness of DPRK-China friendship,” KCNA said.

It was referring to the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Chinese-North Korean relations had reached a “new historical starting point,” Xi said at a banquet hosted by Kimfor the 65th anniversary of the neighbours’ friendship treaty, KCNA added.

Xi vowed that Beijing would not swerve from its commitment to safeguard common interests, Xinhua said on Monday.

But North Korean media did not say if Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme or relations with the United States figured in the talks.

Such an absence suggests Beijing would like the visit cast in terms of neighbourly ties, said Ja Ian Chong, a political science professor at the National University of Singapore.

During his first term, US President Donald Trump met Kim three times, before the unprecedented diplomatic effort broke down over US demands for North Korea to give up nuclear weapons.

Trump has said he would be willing to restart talks.

“It is doubtful that Xi will serve as a catalyst for US-North Korea talks,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.