N. Korean, Chinese media confirm Kim Jong-un's four-day visit to China

Arirang News 2019-01-08

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Our top story this morning.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is in China for the fourth time, for another summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
North Korean and Chinese state media have confirmed the news... and reported that Xi invited Kim over.
For more, let's connect to our unification ministry correspondent Oh Jung-hee, standing by on the line.
Jung-hee, fill us in.

Ji-yoon, you're absolutely right.
North Korea's Korean Central News Agency and China's Xinhua News Agency have both reported this morning that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is visiting China for four days from January 7th to January 10th.
And we're hearing just now that Kim Jong-un arrived in Beijing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping invited Kim Jong-un.
And along with Kim, his wife Ri Sol-ju and top aides from the regime including Kim Yong-chol and a couple of key foreign affairs officials like Ri Su-yong and Ri Yong-ho went to Beijing as well.

This is Kim Jong-un's fourth visit to China.
He met with Xi Jinping three times last year -- once before his first summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in,... once before his June summit with U.S. President Donald Trump,... and once right after the Singapore summit.
All in all, Kim met Xi roughly a month before the big events.
So, Kim's Beijing visit this time raises the question of whether we're close to seeing a second Pyeongyang-Washington summit or Kim's cross-border visit to South Korea any time soon.
Recently, Washington has been creating the atmosphere for another North Korea-U.S. summit.
And Kim Jong-un took with him some key officials related to the nuclear negotiations... so it's highly likely that Kim and Xi will share opinions on the denuclearization talks.
Involving China in the signing of the peace treaty could be another talking point... as Kim Jong-un, through his New Year's Address,... called for multilateral negotiations to end the decades-long war.
But we don't know exactly when Kim and Xi will have their summit.
During his stay, watchers believe,... Kim could also tour around some industrial facilities in China, in view of his focus on economic development.

Seoul says it's aware of Kim's visit to China.
And it assessed that it's quite noteworthy that Pyeongyang's state media revealed the news that Kim is away to China... while he was still on his way there.
In the case of the past three visits, the agency reported the news on the last day of the visit or after the visit.

That's all I have for now, but I'll be watching the story develop and bring you more updates later on.
Back to you, Ji-yoon.

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