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AFP
Beijing
By hosting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a fourth time, China has signalled again that it will not be sidelined in the diplomatic dance between its Cold War-era ally and Washington.
With another nuclear summit looming between Kim and US President Donald Trump, a meeting between President Xi Jinping and the North Korean leader was inevitable, according to analysts.
It has become something of a ritual: Last year, Kim briefed Xi before and after his historic summits with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
China, which wouldn’t want to be left out in the cold in any settlement, has worked to improve relations with its neighbour, which deteriorated after Beijing backed UN sanctions against North Korea.
While Beijing has been angered by Kim’s nuclear tests, it would not be happy to see its decades-old ally move closer to the United States at China’s expense.
“(China) does not think their interests would be threatened by better inter-Korean relations, whereas the possibility of a North Korean alignment with the US, even potentially, against China, I think it’s Beijing’s nightmare,” Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told AFP. “I don’t think they believe it’s impossible under President Trump... and this is one of drivers for Xi Jinping to keep Kim Jong Un close,” Glaser said, noting that Xi reached out “very quickly” after Kim started engaging with Moon.
China has played diplomatic wingman to North Korea, even loaning Kim an Air China jet to travel to his meeting with Trump in Singapore last year.
Beijing is intent on keeping Pyongyang within its sphere of influence -- the North acts as a buffer state, keeping the 28,500 US troops in South Korea far from China’s borders.
Following their meeting in Singapore where Kim and Trump signed a vaguely-worded document pledging work towards the “denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, progress has stalled, with Pyongyang and Washington unable to agree on what that means.
North Korea also needs to stay close to its Korea War ally if diplomacy fails.
Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s ouster after giving up his own weapons programme are not distant memories.
Beijing
By hosting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a fourth time, China has signalled again that it will not be sidelined in the diplomatic dance between its Cold War-era ally and Washington.
With another nuclear summit looming between Kim and US President Donald Trump, a meeting between President Xi Jinping and the North Korean leader was inevitable, according to analysts.
It has become something of a ritual: Last year, Kim briefed Xi before and after his historic summits with Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
China, which wouldn’t want to be left out in the cold in any settlement, has worked to improve relations with its neighbour, which deteriorated after Beijing backed UN sanctions against North Korea.
While Beijing has been angered by Kim’s nuclear tests, it would not be happy to see its decades-old ally move closer to the United States at China’s expense.
“(China) does not think their interests would be threatened by better inter-Korean relations, whereas the possibility of a North Korean alignment with the US, even potentially, against China, I think it’s Beijing’s nightmare,” Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told AFP. “I don’t think they believe it’s impossible under President Trump... and this is one of drivers for Xi Jinping to keep Kim Jong Un close,” Glaser said, noting that Xi reached out “very quickly” after Kim started engaging with Moon.
China has played diplomatic wingman to North Korea, even loaning Kim an Air China jet to travel to his meeting with Trump in Singapore last year.
Beijing is intent on keeping Pyongyang within its sphere of influence -- the North acts as a buffer state, keeping the 28,500 US troops in South Korea far from China’s borders.
Following their meeting in Singapore where Kim and Trump signed a vaguely-worded document pledging work towards the “denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, progress has stalled, with Pyongyang and Washington unable to agree on what that means.
North Korea also needs to stay close to its Korea War ally if diplomacy fails.
Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s ouster after giving up his own weapons programme are not distant memories.
