‘Surprise visit to China’: Kim Jong Un to return home without meeting Xi Jinping? ... Meets with Chinese Premier Li Qiang

[Financial News] After making a secret visit to China for the first time in more than a year, Kim Jong Un, chairman of North Korea’s National Defense Commission, is expected to return to Pyongyang on the 24th after a day trip. If Kim returns to North Korea just one day after arriving in China, a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping also appears unlikely. A South Korean government official predicted that Kim would wrap up his visit to China and return home in a single day.
Kim’s visit to Dandong also coincides with the 76th anniversary, on the 25th, of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army’s entry into the Korean War. Chinese and North Korean state media have remained silent about Kim’s visit to China that day.
To meet Xi, Kim would need to extend his stay in China and travel to Beijing.
The government believes Kim traveled by special train from Pyongyang to Sinuiju, then switched to a vehicle and crossed into Dandong, China, via the New Yalu River Bridge. The bridge is for vehicles only and cannot be used by trains. To travel to Beijing to meet Xi, Kim would have to switch back to his special train and continue his journey.
Xi is staying in Beijing and is focused on tightening party discipline ahead of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee, scheduled for the 26th to the 29th.
With just two days to go before the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee, it would also be difficult in practice for Xi to leave Beijing and travel to Dandong in person to meet Kim. Instead, reports have emerged that Premier Li Qiang, China’s second-ranking official, traveled to Dandong and met with Kim.
Even if Kim wraps up his visit to China in a single day, he will have fully achieved his aim of dispelling recent rumors about his health. He will also experience firsthand the opening of the New Yalu River Bridge, which is set to become a symbol of North Korea-China economic cooperation, and showcase it to the outside world.
[email protected] Kim Kyung-soo Reporter