FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Kim Jong-un Visits Xi Jinping Again, in Dalian, China
May 8, 2018 (EIRNS)—North Korean leader Kim Jong-un travelled to China today to visit President Xi Jinping for a second time, following the summit in Beijing at the end of March. The two met in Dalian, the major port city on the tip of the Liaodong peninsula.
Xinhua showed pictures of the two men walking through a park by the sea, reporting that Xi hosted a welcome banquet and held an in-depth discussion on the evolving situation in Korea and internationally.
“Comrade Chairman made a special trip to China to meet me again just after 40-odd days,” Xi said,
“at a crucial time when the Korean Peninsula situation is undergoing profound and complex changes. This embodies the great importance that Comrade Chairman and the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee have attached to the relations between the two parties and the two countries, and to their strategic communication,”
as reported in Xinhua.
“After the first meeting between me and Comrade Chairman, both China-D.P.R.K. relations and the Korean Peninsula situation have made positive progress. I feel happy about it,”
Xi said.
Kim also praised the progress in bilateral relations since the meeting in March. “These are the positive outcomes of the historic meeting between me and Comrade General Secretary,” he said.
He also stressed that,
“As long as the relevant parties eliminate their hostile policies and security threats toward North Korea, the North Korean side has no need to possess nuclear weapons, and denuclearization can be realized,”
Xinhua reported.
President Trump spoke by phone with President Xi soon after the meeting between Kim and Xi. They discussed the unfolding diplomacy in Korea and the expected summit between Trump and Kim, for which there is still no certain date or venue. The readout from the White House says the two leaders “agreed on the importance of continued implementation of sanctions on North Korea until it permanently dismantles its nuclear and missile programs.”
Trump also announced today that the newly confirmed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on his way to Pyongyang for his second meeting with Kim Jong-un, to finalize plans for the summit.
