North Korean Workers' Party Delegation Visits China Ten Days After Kim Jong Un's Dandong Trip
North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on the 8th that a Workers' Party delegation led by Kim Sung Nam, the party's secretary for international affairs, made an official visit to China from the 3rd to the 7th at the invitation of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee before returning home. Kim had accompanied State Affairs Commission President Kim Jong Un on his visit to Dandong on the 24th of last month, making this trip come just ten days later.
On the 5th, Secretary Kim met with Wang Yi, director of the Chinese Communist Party's Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission and foreign minister, in Beijing. Wang called for implementing the matters agreed upon during the North Korea-China summit talks in June. The following day, the 6th, Kim met with Cai Qi, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee ranked fifth in the party hierarchy and director of the party's General Office. According to the news agency, Cai Qi said that no matter how the international situation changes, China's support for North Korean socialism led by Kim Jong Un would remain unchanged. That same day, Secretary Kim also met with Liu Jianchao, head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department, and pledged to strengthen cooperation between the two parties.
During its stay in China, the delegation, accompanied by Sun Haiyan, deputy head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party, visited the Central Party School, the party's cadre training institution, and also toured the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall and Haier Group's ecological experience center in Qingdao, Shandong Province, continuing exchanges in the fields of economy and urban development.
The visit draws attention because the meeting between Secretary Kim and Foreign Minister Wang took place ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held in Shenzhen, China, on the 18th and 19th of this month. Yang Mu-jin, chair professor at the University of North Korean Studies, interpreted: "It is unlikely that they sent Secretary Kim specifically to discuss North Korea-U.S. dialogue issues, which are not his area of expertise. The focus of this visit was on strengthening party-to-party exchanges so that the promises made by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his June visit to North Korea can be accelerated."
