Foreign minister visit to Pyongyang shows China will never be marginalized on peninsula: expert

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (File photo)

The foreign minister's two-day visit to North Korea starting Wednesday is expected to maintain China's positive role in the peaceful development of the peninsula amid promising breakthroughs in denuclearization and high-profile exchanges by the countries' leaders, analysts said.
During talks with North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho on Wednesday in Pyongyang, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China fully backs North Korea’s efforts to achieve denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

China hopes that the dialogue between North Korea and the US will go smoothly and achieve substantial progress, Wang said.
Wang’s trip is a significant step toward implementing the consensus reached by China and North Korea's leaders, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a daily briefing on Wednesday. The visit will enhance high level exchanges and strategic communications, Hua said.

The visit follows a landmark inter-Korean summit and precedes a meeting between the North's leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump.

Wang will be briefed about Kim's meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in during his visit to Pyongyang and the two sides are also expected to exchange views on the upcoming Kim-Trump meeting, said Da Zhigang, director of the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Northeast Asian Studies.

North Korea needs advice from China about what to offer Trump, while China needs to ensure its own interests aren't hurt by the meeting, Da said.

As North Korea weighs denuclearization and economic development, a stable relationship with China, which shares a border of about 1,400 kilometers, could lend Pyongyang's negotiators more confidence to proceed with the process, Chinese experts said.

China backs North Korea's geopolitical security and the resumed friendly relations can only help North Korea, Da said.

China needs to inform North Korea of its principles and its standpoint on the issue of the peninsula, Lü Chao, a research fellow at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

The trip shows China and North Korea are in strategic communication about major issues, a sign that the two countries' relations have significantly improved since the meeting of their leaders, Lü said.

At the historic summit on Friday, Kim and Moon announced they would work for "complete denuclearization" and work with the US and China this year to declare an official end to the Korean War with a permanent peace agreement.

China will never be marginalized on the peninsula issues, nor could it be. Its role is as hard as a stone and Beijing's suggestions, such as the dual suspension proposals, have ensured peaceful development on the peninsula, Lü said.

Beijing needs to know Pyongyang's concerns as decisions are expected at the Kim-Trump meeting, he noted