North Korea sends military chief to China

Beijing: A top official and confidante of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un Wednesday met a senior Chinese official in Beijing, at a time of strained relations and ahead of a China-US summit.

Choe Ryong-Hae, director of the Korean People’s Army politburo, flew to Beijing with a handful of senior military and ruling party officials, the Korean Central News Agency said, highlighting his role “as a special envoy” of the North’s young leader.

Choe met Wang Jiarui, head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, the official news agency Xinhua said, without giving further details.

Choe is believed to be the highest ranking North Korean party official to visit China - Pyongyang’s sole major ally and chief economic benefactor - since late leader Kim Jong-Il in August 2011.

Kim Jong-Un has never visited since he took over after his father’s death in December 2011. He sent his uncle Jang Song-Thaek, one of the powerful figures in Kim’s inner circle, to Beijing in August last year.

The trip comes at a sensitive time for a relationship which has been sorely tested in recent months by Pyongyang’s refusal to heed Beijing’s warnings against provoking the international community with its nuclear programme.

China has long been the North’s chief diplomatic protector. But it sided with the rest of UN Security Council in imposing sanctions after the North’s long-range rocket test in December last year, and its nuclear test in February.

The sanctions triggered a dangerous cycle of escalating military tensions on the Korean peninsula, during which China came under enormous US-led pressure to rein in its wayward ally which was threatening nuclear strikes against the US and South Korea.

Professor Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies said the timing of Choe’s visit was significant ahead of a scheduled June 7-8 summit between US President Barack Obama and China’s new leader Xi Jinping.

And South Korea’s new president, Park Geun-Hye, is expected to hold a summit with Xi in Beijing in late June.

Meanwhile, Japan is considering direct talks with North Korea, the government said Wednesday, adding momentum to the cause after a top level aide to the prime minister made a surprise trip to Pyongyang.

Bilateral talks are on the table as Tokyo seeks to salve the running sore of abductions of its nationals by North Korean spies in the 1970s and 1980s, an issue that inflames public opinion at home.

But any move to break with Washington and Seoul, who have both stressed the need for a united approach to Pyongyang, could rankle.

“As we are seeking all possibilities, of course such a thing is an option,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters when asked about resuming talks suspended last year when North Korean announced a rocket launch.

The comment came after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Sunday to seek talks with Pyongyang on the issue and after adviser Isao Iijima returned from North Korea following a four-day visit.