Kim Meets Xi before His Scheduled Meeting with Trump

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un again made a surprise two-day visit to China to met Chinese President Xi Jinping. This time it is not Beijing, the two Asian leaders met at the Northeastern Chinese Port city of Dalian. This is the second meeting between the two leaders in two months. In late March the two leaders held a secret meeting in Beijing.

The Chinese trip in March was the first international trip of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, after assuming power in 2011 after the death of his father Kim Jong Il. The meeting was seen as a warming up of ties between the two quarrelsome allies.

The significance of the meeting between Xi Jinping and Kim Jong is that it comes immediately after the historic summit between North Korea and South Korea in late April where Kim Jong-un for the first time met South Korean President Moon Jae-in, ahead of much-anticipated summit of Kim and US President Donald Trump, which is expected to take place in the last week of May or early June.

The meeting in the Chinese port city of Dalian near the North Korean border is also significant because it also defines the central role of China in the first moving diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula. It is also to be noted that the meeting is held just before Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s scheduled visit to Tokyo on Wednesday to participate in the tripartite meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, where the leaders are expected to discuss denuclearization of North Korea.

Kim Jong Un arrived at Dalian on his private aircraft on Monday and was received by high profile Chinese officials including Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted a welcome banquet in Kim’s honor. Both the leader took a casual stroll along a beach.

According to Chinese State Media Xinhua, Xi said that the North Korean leader Kim had come “to meet me again just after 40-odd days at a crucial time when the Korean Peninsula situation is undergoing profound and complex changes”. While Kim said that he came to China again to “strengthen strategic communication” with China.

But experts are of the view that Kim went to meet Xi at Dalian to request for sanctions relief in denuclearization. By meeting Xi again in two months Kim was also trying to get China’s assurance and backing for his diplomatic developments with the USA.

After the news of the meeting between North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping was made public, US President Donald Trump reacted immediately through his tweets, where he announced that he would be speaking to “my friend Xi”. President Trump tweeted, “The primary topics will be trade, where good things will happen and North Korea, where relationships and trust are building”.

Though it is still not very clear, when the meeting of the important leader was planned and why Dalian as the location for the meeting was chosen. Also, Kim's presence in China was not confirmed till he was in China, the meeting was made public after the North Korean leader left for North Korea after two days in China.