What do China and North Korea want from the Xi-Kim meeting?

AP offers an assessment of what Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un may want to achieve during the first visit by a Chinese leader to Pyongyang in more than a decade.

Photo: AP

Xi Jinping's wishes

The Chinese president visited North Korea as he is locked in a costly trade war with US President Donald Trump and ahead of a planned meeting between the two later this month at the G20 summit in Japan.

President Xi Jinping’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is seen as Xi’s way of sending a subtle but thorny message to Trump: Washington must make concessions on trade if it wants China to exert its influence over North Korea.

"Xi could send a message to the United States that 'if you accept our stance on the trade war, we can convey your nuclear stance to Pyongyang and help you make some progress' on the nuclear issue," said Nam Sung-wook, a professor at Korea University and former president of the Institute for National Security Strategy, AP reported.

Beijing may also want to demonstrate that, depending on how Washington behaves on trade, China can exert its influence over US-North Korea diplomacy.

Talks between the US and North Korea collapsed at the second summit, when Mr Trump rejected Mr Kim’s demand for sanctions relief in exchange for partial denuclearisation steps. The North Korean leader then gave Washington until the end of the year to come up with new acceptable disarmament proposals.

The Trump administration has affirmed that sanctions will remain in place but left the door open for further negotiations.

According to AP, there are currently many different opinions among experts about the level of influence China has on North Korea, because in previous years, Pyongyang continued to conduct missile and nuclear tests despite Beijing's objections.

But the relationship between the two neighbors is very practical. More than 90% of North Korea’s foreign trade goes through China, and some experts believe Beijing’s support for UN sanctions in 2016 and 2017 encouraged Kim Jong-un to open up diplomatically in early 2018.

Kim Jong-un's wishes

Chairman Kim Jong-un wants what he has always aimed for: Relief from international sanctions, while making as few concessions on his nuclear program as possible.

Although President Trump frequently praises Kim Jong-un in the media, there has been no change in the US's tough stance on sanctions or denuclearization.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is now seeking China's help to pressure the US to de-escalate.

"Kim will try to persuade President Xi to support more strongly North Korea's efforts to push forward (disarmament) steps in exchange for US concessions and resist further sanctions or military pressure," said Wi Sung-lac, a former South Korean envoy to the six-party nuclear talks involving the two Koreas, China, the US, Russia and Japan.

President Xi will likely do so, but will also urge Kim Jong-un to show a stronger commitment to dialogue and refrain from provocative actions such as weapons testing, according to Wi Sung-lac.

After the collapse of the second US-North Korea summit, Pyongyang has shown its displeasure by testing short-range missiles and making strong statements against Washington and Seoul. Now both Xi and Kim are likely to want to avoid a full-blown diplomatic war with the US.

Recently, the North Korean leader sent President Trump a letter that he described as "nice", a development that analysts said showed Kim Jong-un's desire to maintain good relations with Mr. Trump.