Kim Jong Un heads home after a ‘day trip’ to China; Wang Huning, the No. 4 official, sees him off without a meeting with Xi Jinping

[Financial News] North Korean leader Kim Jong Un set off for home on the 24th after a day trip to China, his first visit in more than a year. According to Xinhua News Agency, Kim held talks that day in Dandong, China, with Wang Huning, the country’s fourth-ranking official. Kim then left Dandong for home and was seen off by Chinese officials at the New Yalu River Bridge.
Kim did not meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during this visit to China. To meet Xi, Kim would have had to extend his trip and travel to Beijing. 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.
It would also have been difficult in practice for Xi to leave Beijing and travel to Dandong himself to meet Kim just two days before the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee.
Kim’s visit to China this time took him across the recently opened New Yalu River Bridge connecting China and North Korea. He also used the bridge on his way home.
Although construction of the New Yalu River Bridge was completed with China paying the entire cost of 2.2 billion yuan (about 440 billion won), it had remained unopened for as long as 12 years. However, its opening was promised shortly after Xi’s recent visit to Pyongyang, and operations unexpectedly began on the 15th. North Korea appears to be moving to maximize economic cooperation with China while minimizing sanctions against it.
That day, Kim traveled by private train from Pyongyang to Sinuiju, switched to a vehicle, and crossed the New Yalu River Bridge into Dandong, China. The bridge is for vehicles only; trains cannot use it.
In Dandong, Kim laid flowers at China’s Memorial Hall of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea and also visited a nearby automobile factory. His visit to Dandong coincided with the 76th anniversary, on the 25th, of the Chinese People’s Volunteers’ participation in the Korean War.
The return journey follows the route to China in reverse. Kim will travel by vehicle to the New Yalu River Bridge, receive a send-off from the Chinese side, then board his private train in Sinuiju and return to Pyongyang.
A source familiar with North Korean affairs said, “Even by completing his visit to China as a day trip, Chairman Kim fully achieved his goal of dispelling recent rumors about his health,” and assessed, “He experienced firsthand the opening of the New Yalu River Bridge, which will become a symbol of North Korea-China economic cooperation, and made it known to the outside world.” 

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