North Korea leader ends China visit as Trump summit looms

Kim Jong-un's train has left Beijing after the North Korean leader visited China on a trip ahead of his expected summit with US President Donald Trump.

Media reports said on Wednesday that Kim's motorcade was spotted arriving at the Beijing central railway station early afternoon, and the train departed shortly after on a day-long ride back to the northeast border.

According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, Kim met for one hour with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday and the two later dined with their wives at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

Kim also toured a factory operated by medicine firm Tongrentang for about half an hour in an economic zone in the Chinese capital.

This is Kim’s fourth trip to China since last year, when Pyongyang started unprecedented diplomatic engagement with other countries.

Kim’s visit also coincided with another development in China, where a delegation of American negotiators has already started talks over a trade war between Beijing and Washington. Some analysts say China could use its cooperation on the North Korean issue as a bargaining chip in the US trade talks.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, told CNBC on Monday that the trade talks and the North Korean issue were not related. 

On the contrary, Harry Kazianis, the director of defense studies at the Washington-based Center for the National Interest, said the timing from China’s perspective “could not be any better,” as “Beijing clearly has a North Korea card to play if it sees fit” amid the trade talks with the US. 

Kim has made sure to keep Xi informed about his dealings with the United States and South Korea. The North Korean leader held three meetings last year with Xi before and after summits with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Discussions between the US and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal have stalled since Kim and Trump's high-profile summit in Singapore in June 2018 where they issued a vaguely worded declaration about denuclearization.

Trump has also claimed that Washington's diplomacy with Pyongyang has eliminated a purported threat posed by North Korea to the US national security.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in China only days after warning he would take an “alternative path” if the US kept his country under pressure and sanctions.

In the Singapore summit, Trump and Kim agreed to work toward denuclearization. But that agreement, made in a written document, was broadly worded.

Denuclearizing North Korea has made little progress in recent months. 

Trump has recently said officials are working to arrange a second meeting between him and Kim. On Sunday, Trump said that the United States and North Korea are negotiating the location of their next summit.

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The two leaders met with plenty of photo ops and little time for talk at Singapore's Capella Hotel on the resort island of Sentosa.

The United States refuses to remove any of its harsh sanctions on Pyongyang, while the North Korean government has already taken several unilateral measures toward denuclearization.

Follow-up diplomacy between the United States and North Korea has borne little fruit. But South Korea has significantly advanced in its diplomatic engagement of its long-time rival North Korea.

Still, the North has taken several steps toward that goal. It has suspended missile and nuclear testing, demolished at least one nuclear test site, and agreed to allow international inspectors into a missile engine test facility and another nuclear testing site.

PressTV-US sanctions put denuclearization at risk: North Korea

Washington recently introduced sanctions on three North Korean officials.

In return, Pyongyang is seeking relief from harsh international sanctions, mostly spearheaded by the United States, imposed on the country over its nuclear and missile programs. Washington, however, has not offered any such relief, hence the slowdown in further diplomacy.

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