North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang on Thursday during a historic visit to burnish an uneasy alliance, with the two men each facing challenges of their own with U.S. President Donald Trump.
With the North’s nuclear negotiations with the U.S. at a standstill, Mr. Kim told his country’s key diplomatic supporter that he was “willing to be patient”, Chinese state media reported, but wanted “the parties concerned” to meet him halfway.
First in 14 years
Mr. Xi is the first Chinese President to visit North Korea in 14 years, after relations between the Cold War-era allies deteriorated over Pyongyang’s nuclear provocations and Beijing’s subsequent backing of UN sanctions.
But Mr. Kim ensured that Mr. Xi was the first head of state he met as he embarked on a flurry of diplomacy last year, and has now visited his ally four times in China.
China’s trade negotiations with Washington hit a wall last month and analysts say Mr. Xi is now looking for leverage ahead of his meeting with Mr. Trump at next week’s G20 summit in Japan.
At their formal talks, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Mr. Kim told Mr. Xi that the North had taken “many positive measures to avoid a tense situation” over the past year, “but has not received positive responses from the relevant parties”.
“This is not what the DPRK wants to see,” CCTV cited him as adding.
Mr. Xi told Mr. Kim that he “positively evaluated” the North’s efforts and was “willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the DPRK and all relevant parties”.
Mr. Kim met Mr. Xi at Pyongyang airport as he began the state visit with his wife Peng Liyuan, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and other officials, television images showed. In an unprecedented move, Mr. Xi was welcomed at the Kumsusan Palace, the mausoleum where the preserved bodies of the North’s founder Kim Il-sung and his successor Kim Jong-il lie in state.
The Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling party, devoted the top half of its front page to the visit, with a colour picture of Mr. Xi, a day after it carried an article by him, also on the front page.
Authorities imposed tight restrictions on media, with international journalists in Pyongyang not allowed to cover the visit, and no non-Chinese foreign media organisations given visas.