North Korea, China claim wins from Xi visit, but limits remain

Highlights:

• Xi made a two-day visit to Pyongyang this week
• Analysts say lack of discussion on denuclearisation was a 'big win' for Kim
• But China achieved aim of pulling Pyongyang closer

North Korea and China both walked away claiming major wins from Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit this week to the isolated state, which helped elevate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's global stature and pulled Pyongyang more tightly into China's orbit.

The two countries each lavished the other with praise and spoke of deeper cooperation during the two-day trip, which saw Kim greet Xi with a 21-gun salute as well as a performance of Chinese and North Korean songs and avoided discussion of thornier issues such as denuclearisation and the United States.

Kim "has often talked about how North Korea is now a pivotal player in reshaping the global order, and its partnership with Russia has been a major catalyst in validating that assertion," said Jenny Town, director of the Korea programme at the Washington-based Stimson Center.

"Having Xi now take his first trip out of country this year to visit Pyongyang on an agenda that didn't include North Korea's nuclear programme was a big win for Kim."

The lack of discussion around denuclearisation, which had in the past strained China's relationship with North Korea, is a significant change.

On the eve of Xi's visit, Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader's sister, slammed the US as spreading false information, after Washington in May said that Xi and US President Donald Trump had confirmed a shared goal to denuclearise North Korea during talks in Beijing.

"Beijing has very clearly moved on from that issue and now tacitly accepts North Korea as a nuclear state, which likely puts China on an equal footing with Russia in Pyongyang's eyes," said Jeremy Chan, a China & Northeast Asia analyst at Eurasia Group.

"I think China achieved its primary goal of this trip, which was drawing North Korea closer and counterbalancing Russia's growing influence in North Korea."

Chinese scholars, however, said the visit was neither directed against nor subject to the influence of any third country.

"The visit is primarily aimed at consolidating the traditional bilateral friendship between China and the DPRK," said Zhang Yun, an international relations professor at China's Nanjing University.

Asked whether Kim and Xi discussed denuclearisation on Tuesday, China's foreign ministry told a regular briefing that China's position and policy on the peninsula remained consistent and stable.

To a follow-up request for comment on whether the lack of mention meant an implicit acceptance of North Korea as a nuclear state, the ministry said on Thursday that China had repeatedly stated its position on the matter.

Officially, China opposes North Korea's nuclear build-up but has increasingly avoided pressing the issue publicly.

Limits to cooperation

Still, analysts noted there were distinct differences in the two sides' accounts of the leaders' talks, with North Korea more focused on the pageantry of the event and positioning itself as an equal to Beijing, while China spoke of hoped-for outcomes around trade, tourism and law enforcement.

Town said it indicated there were limits to how far North Korea was willing to go to improve the relationship with China, after moving closer to Russia in recent years by sending military support for the Ukraine war and receiving economic help in return.

"It is clear that Kim and Xi do not have the kind of rapport Kim has with Putin; there seems to be little personal affinity between them. But both understand the strategic value of the relationship to push through," she said.

But Kim giving explicit support for Beijing's One China principle, which for Beijing means that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one country, and China's mention of military cooperation stood out, they added.

"North Korea's support for Russia has shown that Pyongyang can provide material assistance to a major power in wartime. There is no evidence yet of a comparable commitment to China, but DPRK (North Korea) messaging on Taiwan now matters more than before," said Chad O'Carroll, founder of North Korea-focused website NK News.

Observers of the visit also said they were closely watching for the presence of Kim's daughter as it would have bolstered arguments made by South Korea's spy agency and others that she was being groomed to succeed her father.

The daughter, who is believed to be around 13 and named Ju Ae, accompanied Kim on his visit to Beijing last year and is pictured with him regularly. However, she has not been seen in images of the trip released by Chinese and North Korean state media.

Benjamin Ho, China programme associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said her absence was in keeping with China's style.

"Given Beijing's penchant for protocol, it would be awkward if a young girl appears among all the senior officials present," he said.