North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in China for two-day trip ‘to brief Xi Jinping on Donald Trump summit’
Kim’s third trip to China comes a week after his talks with US president in Singapore
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has landed in Beijing, a week after his landmark summit with US President Donald Trump, Chinese state media reported on Tuesday.
Kim will be in the Chinese capital for two days on his third visit to China, after a secret first trip to Beijing in late March and a second one to China’s northeastern coastal city of Dalian in early May.
A North Korean freight plane, which transported Kim’s limousine to Singapore, landed in Beijing earlier on Tuesday.
Nikkei Asian Review, citing unidentified sources, reported on Tuesday that Kim was expected to brief Chinese President Xi Jinping on his summit with Trump and discuss a future negotiating strategy.
Sue Mi Terry, a Korea expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, told the South China Morning Post that Kim’s recent engagement in diplomacy meant that frequent visits to China and meetings with Xi, rather than phone calls, made sense.