Seoul's unification ministry says Kim Song-nam's Beijing visit was primarily meant to share a Chinese party plenum's results and maintain high-level exchanges.
Seoul's unification ministry said Monday that Kim Song-nam's recent visit to Beijing appeared intended to share the outcome of last month's key Chinese party meeting and maintain high-level exchanges between the two countries. Spokesperson Yoon Min-ho made the assessment at a press briefing. Kim is a member of the Political Bureau of the Workers' Party of Korea and a party secretary. He visited China from Tuesday to Saturday and met Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other senior officials (Yonhap, Nov. 9).
Yoon said the primary purpose was to share the results of the fifth plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and maintain high-level exchanges, but added that the ministry would keep monitoring developments with various possibilities in mind. He was responding to a question on whether the trip was meant for consultations over possible resumption of dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang. He noted the trip came 10 days after Kim Jong-un's visit to the border city of Dandong, saying it showed bilateral relations developing into "strategic" ones.
North Korean state media said Kim Song-nam met Liu Haixing, head of the CPC Central Committee's International Liaison Department, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on Friday. Yonhap counted it as his third meeting with a senior Chinese official since he arrived Tuesday. He briefed Liu on party-building work and said the whole country was striving to meet targets of the five-year plan adopted at the ninth party congress in February. Liu called the visit significant for strengthening relations, according to the report, and the two sides reaffirmed support for each other's policies and pledged deeper cooperation (Yonhap, Nov. 7).
Yonhap noted the two countries are seeking to deepen ties after Chinese President Xi Jinping's June summit with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang. In a separate dispatch, KCNA said Kim also met Cai Qi (Yonhap, Nov. 7).
