[Mr. Kim’s trip unfolded in extraordinary secrecy and security; it was confirmed only after he left Beijing on the same armored train that stirred up speculation when it arrived mysteriously in the Chinese capital on Monday. (Both Mr. Kim’s father and grandfather, the North’s former leaders, used similar trains for foreign trips.)]
By Steven Lee Myers And Jane
Perlez
 |
|
Mr.
Kim traveled to and from Beijing in a green armored train much like the one
that
his
father, Kim Jong-il, used when he ruled the North. Credit Jason Lee/Reuters
|
BEIJING
— North Korea’s enigmatic
young leader, Kim Jong-un, made an unannounced visit to Beijing, meeting with
President Xi Jinping weeks before planned summit meetings with American and
South Korean leaders, Chinese state news media reported on Wednesday.
The visit amounted to Mr. Kim’s international
debut: It was the 34-year-old leader’s first trip outside North Korea since he
took power in 2011, and his first meeting with another head of state. The
surprise discussions added another layer of complexity to the rush of global
diplomacy around North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Mr. Kim’s trip unfolded in extraordinary
secrecy and security; it was confirmed only after he left Beijing on the same
armored train that stirred up speculation when it arrived mysteriously in the
Chinese capital on Monday. (Both Mr. Kim’s father and grandfather, the North’s
former leaders, used similar trains for foreign trips.)
Mr. Kim made the trip to China at the
invitation of Mr. Xi, North Korea’s state-run Central TV reported soon after on
Wednesday. Mr. Kim was accompanied by his wife, Ri Sol-ju, as well as by his
senior advisers, it said.
Mr. Kim told the Chinese leader that he was
open to dialogue with the United States and was committed to the
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, according to an account published by
China’s state-run news agency Xinhua. China described the trip as an unofficial
visit.
The visit suggested that Mr. Kim values or
needs China’s approval — and possibly its advice — as he seeks to capitalize on
a risky diplomatic opening with President Trump after more than a year of
tension and threats.
Yang Xiyu, one of China’s leading experts on
North Korea, said that Mr. Kim was clearly trying to repair the North’s deeply
strained relations with Beijing, its traditional ally and benefactor, while
opening new ties with its enemy South Korea.
Even so, Mr. Yang said, that did not signal
that Mr. Kim was willing to give up his nuclear arsenal, though he has told
South Korean envoys that he was prepared to discuss the possibility.
“He is starting a new game where he could
make concessions on denuclearization,” Mr. Yang said. “At most, he will cut the
grass, but he will not pull out the roots.”
The Trump administration has made it clear
that it will not tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea able to launch ballistic
missiles that could strike the United States. Those in Washington who favor a
forceful approach with the North were bolstered last week by the appointment of
John Bolton as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser; only a month ago, Mr.
Bolton warned that a pre-emptive strike on North Korea’s arsenal would be a
“perfectly legitimate” response to a threat to the American mainland.
After months of increasing political and
economic pressure, North Korea’s once-defiant tone has shifted dramatically
since January, for which some have credited Mr. Trump’s threats of military
action.
Last month, the North sent a delegation to
the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, led by Mr. Kim’s sister, Kim
Yo-jong, and the North’s nominal head of state, Kim Yong-nam. They put on a
charm offensive that led to direct talks with the South Koreans, plans for a
meeting between Mr. Kim and the South’s president, Moon Jae-in, and then an
extraordinary offer to meet directly with Mr. Trump.
The meeting with Mr. Moon is set to take
place next month on the Koreas’ border, while Mr. Trump is to hold his own
talks with Mr. Kim by May, at a site still to be determined.
Now, with no prior fanfare, Mr. Xi has become
the first major foreign leader to meet Mr. Kim.
Their meeting may help ease tensions between
China and the North after years of deepening rancor. China supports the
international efforts to rein in the North’s nuclear weapons development, but
experts say it also wants to keep the North as a stable buffer on its northeast
border.
Shi Yinhong, a professor of international
relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said that despite the recent strains
in the relationship, it was not surprising that the North Koreans would turn to
China at this moment — one that would be pivotal for any leader, let alone one
as untested as Mr. Kim.
“Kim Jong-un is now in a most difficult
economic situation, and he faces a gamble to meet Trump,” Mr. Shi said.
Since Mr. Kim took power after his father’s
death more than six years ago, Chinese officials and experts have become
increasingly disdainful of him for ignoring Beijing’s entreaties to halt his
nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests.
While China has never entirely turned its
back on North Korea, it has grown increasingly alarmed by the nuclear tests,
which have brought threats of dire punishment from Mr. Trump. Under that
pressure, Beijing has backed increasingly stringent United Nations sanctions
that have reduced the North’s exports of coal, seafood and other goods to
China.
Mr. Kim’s Beijing visit underscores the
historic bonds between the two countries, forged in shared experiences of war
and Communist revolution.
China backed North Korean forces in the
Korean War of 1950-53, during which hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers
died. Mr. Kim may be following an example set by his father, Kim Jong-il, in
appealing to those ties after a period of tension.
The elder Mr. Kim’s first visit to China — in
2000 — also came roughly six years after he took power, and shortly before a
planned summit meeting with South Korea. Before then, China and North Korea had
gone through years of strain after Beijing established diplomatic relations
with Seoul in 1992.
There were other similarities between the two
visits, including Kim Jong-un’s furtive, unannounced arrival aboard an armored
train, which was first spotted at North Korea’s border with China near the city
of Dandong.
On Monday evening and Tuesday morning, the
only evidence of Mr. Kim’s presence in Beijing was heightened security around
the North Korean Embassy and the government guesthouse where the delegation
stayed, as well as the comings and goings of large motorcades of black sedans
and sport utility vehicles with police escorts.
Neither China nor North Korea acknowledged
the visit while Mr. Kim was in Beijing. A spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, deflected a question about it at a daily
briefing, saying there was nothing to report.
In Seoul, a presidential aide told reporters
on Tuesday that South Korea was closely watching “what is unfolding in
Beijing.” He added that it was a good sign that North Korea and China were
improving ties before the coming summit talks.
During his 2000 visit, Kim Jong-il toured
Chinese special economic zones, as Chinese leaders sought to show him the
merits of opening markets. But the current North Korean leader apparently made
no such side trips. By Tuesday evening, his train had left Beijing’s central
station, headed toward Pyongyang, the North’s capital.
Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from
Seoul, South Korea, and Chris Buckley and Keith Bradsher from Beijing. Owen Guo
and Olivia Mitchell Ryan contributed research.
