China-N. Korea chess moves

In anticipation of talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump in May, Mr Kim took the world by surprise recently when he rode in his armoured train to Beijing. The surprise was all the greater as the North Korean dictator has visited no country since assuming office in 2011, nor invited any foreign leader to Pyongyang. But in Beijing he was received with pageantry and pomp associated with state visits. Apparently, Mr Kim’s “unofficial” visit to China was at the invitation of President Xi Jinping. Presumably, the “official” tag has been eschewed in order to keep the talks under wraps and avoid issuing public statements.

China is isolated North Korea’s biggest benefactor, in economic and military terms. And yet, in recent years relations between the two haven’t exactly been warm, presumably because China has gone along with UN-imposed sanctions against the North on account of its nuclear activities. But China overlooked this and invited Mr Kim.  Evidently, it is keen to ensure that in its talks with Washington, Pyongyang does not strike up a posture independent of China or overlooking China’s geopolitical interests. Pyongyang possesses nuclear bombs and missiles to deliver them thanks to Chinese indulgence and its building up of the North as a counter to US-defended South Korea. No American leader has ever talked to a North Korean leader before, and there has been speculation that Pyongyang could aim to tilt geopolitics by attempting to do a deal with Washington which would discomfit Beijing. By hosting Mr Kim, China has also tried to see that Russia is cut out of any role of influence when Pyongyang and Washington talk.