According to some reliable sources, has said that the North Korean President, Kim Jong Un made a surprise visit to Beijing. If true, the visit can be termed to be the first trip by him outside North Korea since coming to power in the year 2011.
More details of the trip with details of his stay in China and the schedule about who is going to meet him there were not available immediately. The people who informed asked not to be identified due to the high sensitivity of the information.
There was a high speculation in the Chinese media with reports doing rounds on Monday that a high ranking official from North Korea may visit the country. According to the Japan’s Kyodo News, a special train may have carried Kim through the border city of Dandong. A video footage of a train arrival was displayed by the Nippon TV in Beijing. The train looked similar to the one used by his father Kim Jong II, when he visited China before his death in the year 2011.
The surprise visit, which was not announced officially, comes at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to wage a war against North Korea in an attempt to curb its progress in nuclear weapon development. The President of the United States has been consistent in his efforts to contain President Kim’s plans. And on China side, the President Xi Jinping is underway to prepare for a trade war with Trump even as he had supported United Nations over sanctions against the Kim regime.
As per the reports, it seems U.S. did not have any prior knowledge of Kim’s visit to the country. White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told reporters on Monday that he couldn’t confirm reports doing rounds about his trip and “we don’t know if they’re necessarily true.” A State Department spokesman, Julia Mason, responded to questions posed by the media about the report with a single sentence: “We’d refer you to the Chinese.”
“What I’ll just state, though, is that where we are with North Korea is in a better place than we used to be because the president’s maximum pressure campaign in conjunction with dozens of countries around the world has paid dividends and brought the North Koreans to the table,” Shah added.
“If this meeting is confirmed, it may actually be more productive than a photo op between Trump and Kim in a few weeks,” said Melissa Hanham, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, in Monterey, California, USA. “North Korea is often perceived as an ungrateful junior brother, but recent tensions and increased nuclear and missile capabilities mean China’s taking this seriously and doesn’t want to be left out of the process.”
Earlier this month, Trump decided to grant an unprecedented meeting to the Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, after officials from South Korea said that Kim conveyed his willingness to discuss about giving up his nuclear weapons program. The summit between the North Korean leader and China is yet to be confirmed between by Pyongyang media and details pertaining to when and where the meeting took place, are yet to be confirmed.
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