A North Korean envoy gave Chinese President Xi Jinping a handwritten
letter from Kim Jong Un on Friday and said Pyongyang wanted to solve
diplomatic issues through dialogue, Chinese state media reported, a
high-level move that appeared aimed at assuaging Beijing's concerns
about the volatile state's actions in order to secure vital continued
economic support.
China's official evening newscast showed Vice Marshal Choe
Ryong Hae, a confidant of Mr. Kim, shaking hands with Mr. Xi at
Beijing's Great Hall of the People. Mr. Choe wore a formal Mao-style
suit rather than his usual military uniform.
Mr. Xi said the Chinese government and Communist Party wanted
to "push forward the development of healthy and stable relations" with
North Korea, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Mr. Xi also
reiterated China's longstanding position of seeking denuclearization of
the Korean peninsula through the stalled "six-party talks" process, the
report said.
Mr. Choe was described as saying North Korea wanted to strive
to resolve current difficulties through six-party talks and other
unspecified types of dialogue and consultations to ease tensions. Mr.
Choe said North Korea valued its relationship with China and that the
country was committed to developing its economy, improving the
livelihood of its people, and needed to "build a peaceful diplomatic
environment."
The content of the letter from Mr. Kim to Mr. Xi wasn't stated.
Mr. Choe arrived in Beijing on Wednesday as a "special envoy"
from Mr. Kim. In meetings with other officials, Chinese reports have
cited Mr. Choe as saying North Korea seeks peace and stability, but
without any indication that Pyongyang would be willing to discuss
reversing its nuclear weapons program.
The Friday reference by Mr. Choe in the Xinhua report to
six-party talks may lead to speculation that Pyongyang is prepared to
put its nuclear arms back on the negotiating table. The six-party talks,
which also involved China, Japan, Russia,
South Korea and the U.S., began in 2003 with the goal of providing
North Korea with aid and other incentives to roll back its nuclear
ambitions. The process produced agreements with the North that
ultimately collapsed and the talks ended in 2008 when the North walked
out of discussions.
While China frequently calls for the resumption of the
six-party talks process, North Korea has repeatedly said it would never
return to the forum. This year, Pyongyang enshrined nuclear weapons
development into law at a parliament meeting and set economic and
nuclear progress as its two top policy goals.
Analysts were skeptical that North Korea was about to change
course and said Mr. Choe's references to dialogue were targeted at
easing concerns in Beijing about Pyongyang's provocative behavior in
order to win continued aid, oil and other backing from China. North
Korean state media had no report on the meeting with Mr. Xi but other
dispatches about Mr. Choe's meetings with other Chinese officials made
no mention of dialogue and instead emphasized warm ties between the two
countries.
"The major goal of Vice-Marshal Choe's trip is to repair
deteriorating relations with China and calm down the irritation which
was caused by the recent actions of North Korea. This is important,
since their economy is too dependent on China," said Andrei Lankov, a
North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul.
Relations between China and North Korea have been tested over
the past half year by a series of provocations by Pyongyang, including a
long-range missile test in December and nuclear test in February.
Beijing showed its displeasure with the nuclear test by backing United
Nations sanctions that North Korea railed against during March and
April, while also threatening South Korea and the U.S. with attack.
Perhaps the most serious move for North Korea was a recent
decision by one of China's largest state-owned banks, Bank of China
Ltd., to cut off dealings with North Korea's primary foreign-exchange
bank, potentially sharply restricting the North's access to foreign
currency.
Analysts said that if North Korea wants to start other
dialogue, it's not clear with whom that would take place. The U.S. has
made it a precondition that North Korea show it is moving towards
denuclearization before any talks can begin.
One potential avenue could be with South Korea, which has
repeatedly called for dialogue with the North in recent weeks to ease
cross-border tensions and to discuss the countries' shuttered industrial
park. Pyongyang has rejected all of those requests. On Friday, the
South Korean government said it wasn't reading too much into the reports
of Mr. Choe's meetings and conversations.
"The [South Korean] government would like to wait and see a bit more," said foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tae-young.