China indicates North Korea ready for “denuclearization” after visit
Legal Insurrection readers will recall our report that it was suspected that North Korea’s Supreme Leader traveled to Beijing, China for significant, policy-oriented meetings
The news is confirmed. I believe that Kim Jong Un was being treated to lectures of China’s version of the “New World Order”. My theory appears to be correct, as a Reuters report indicates that the rogue regime is promising to denuclearize.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to denuclearize and meet US officials, China said on Wednesday after an historic meeting with President Xi Jinping, who promised China would uphold its friendship with its isolated neighbor.After two days of speculation, China and North Korea both confirmed that Kim had visited Beijing and met Xi during what China’s Foreign Ministry called an unofficial visit to China from Sunday to Wednesday.The China visit was Kim’s first known trip outside North Korea since he assumed power in 2011 and is believed by analysts to serve as preparation for upcoming summits with South Korea and the United States.
Chinese news is touting this development, though there doesn’t seem to be a timetable for this process.
The official New China News Agency says Kim told Chinese leader Xi Jinping: “If South Korea and the United States respond with goodwill to our efforts, and create an atmosphere of peace and stability, and take phased, synchronized measures to achieve peace, the issue of the denuclearization of the peninsula can reach resolution.””The nuclear issue is the only obstacle” to good relations between China and North Korea, says Lu Chao, a North Korea expert at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, and without it being addressed, China would not invite Kim for a visit.
Harry J. Kazianis, the director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest, thinks that the exchange between Kim and Xi is to help address the possibilities of a future meeting with President Donald Trump. He offers an interpretation of what phased, synchronized measures may mean.
…Basically, what would Kim Jong Un demand from the United States and South Korea for giving up his nuclear weapons?Would the North demand, for example, the ending of the U.S.-South Korea alliance and the removal of all U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula? Would Kim demand America also denuclearize, as he has demanded in the past? An absurd demand that like would show Kim had no intention of negotiating seriously.And let’s go further afield and think through what terms North Korea would seek in the denuclearization process. Would Pyongyang allow international inspectors full access to all parts of the country? Would the North allow the total destruction of all aspects of its nuclear program, including all nuclear reactors? What happens to North Korea’s missile program or chemical and biological weapons programs?
Being optimistic, I will note that Kim got an important reality check and at least used the term “denuclearize”. This is a far cry from his ICBM-launching shenanigans a few months ago.
But according to some reports, North Korea probably didn’t mean with China out of the goodness of their heart. According to The Telegraph, China had dramatically reduced petrol, steel, and car exports to North Korea over the last five months.
The leaders of North and South Korea are to meet on April 27 for the first time in more than a decade, the two countries announced on Thursday after preliminary talks between senior officials.An analysis of Chinese customs data from Aberdeen Standard Investments has revealed that China’s exports of refined petroleum to North Korea have collapsed in the last five months, to as little as 3.7 per cent on the previous year.Other products have also been hit. North Korean steel imports from China have fallen dramatically, along with car imports. Economists believe that the data may explain the recent dramatic shifts in North Korean policy.The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un provoked widespread international attention this week with a
trip to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. This followed the country’s attendance at the Winter Olympics, and was another highly unusual step for closed-off state, known for its efforts to proliferate nuclear weapons an oppressive regime.
Alex Wolf, a senior economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments told The Daily Telegraph that the data suggested a blocking of the flow of exports into North Korea from China was a case of “using pressure to bring Kim closer to the [Chinese political] fold”.
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