What is the reason for Kim Jong Il's China visit?

16:35, May 13, 2010

Is DPRK's nuke fusion claim false?

According to an article published on Global Times Thursday, DPRK leader Kim Jong Il's recent unofficial four-day visit to China was made public by official media in both China and DPRK. Although the two sides said nothing about the visit previously, international media made special coverage on every detail of Kim's China tour the moment Kim set foot in China.

As a matter of fact, Kim's China tour is not a secret anymore. Wang Jiarui, minister of the International Department of Communist Party of China (CPC) extended invitation on behalf of President Hu Jintao to Kim to visit China at an appropriate date when he visited DPRK in February this year. On one hand, China did not want the visit to be shrouded in mystery. On the other hand, China was ready for Kim's visit and let DPRK to choose the time.

Analysts said it was politically wise for DPRK to set the visit at this time. According to some media reports, Kim left Beijing for home without watching the DPRK opera, which was adapted from the Chinese masterpiece "A Dream of the Red Chamber" with officials from both countries because his visit has met all the goals.

On May 3, the first day of Kim's visit, The 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) kicked off a the U.N. Headquarters in New York. This conference and the Nuclear Security Summit held last month in the U.S. have made the people aware of the threat of nuclear proliferation and security. DPRK, the only one country that signed but later withdrew from the treaty, didn't care much about the global opposition of its nuclear tests in densely populated areas.

The world can not tolerate a nuclear-armed DPRK and the country is to face international sanctions and moral pressure. It is like a well-played card that leader of DPRK kicked off his secret China visit in this kind of situation and kept the world in suspense. The country has already won one point even before Kim's visit.

On March 26, a South Korean naval vessel with 104 crew members onboard sank into waters off the west coast of the Korean Peninsular, killing 46. South Korea invited many countries to take part in the investigation but no official results have been released yet. However, for South Korea, DPRK was implicated in the case, adding more uncertainties between the two Koreas.

South Korea chose to refer the incident to the United Nations once it published the results and the evidence. In this way, the position of China, one of the permanent members of U.N. Security Council, will matter a great deal. One of South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak's goals during his trip to China on April 30 was to discuss the sunken ship.

Kim's visit to China, which closely followed Lee's, irritated many South Koreans. In their view, China stood with DPRK and was in a standoff with the South. Although China repeatedly made it clear that Kim's visit had nothing to do with the sunken vessel, the China-South Korea riff has given DPRK another point and made the vessel incident more mysterious.

The U.N. Security Council passed the Resolution 1874 imposing political and economic sanctions on DPRK in response to the country's second nuclear test in May last year. The economic sanctions included restriction on arms trade, prevention of capital flow into DPRK for the development of missile and nuclear arms.

Political sanctions called for the member states, in addition to implementing their obligations pursuant to Resolution 1718 (2006), to prevent the provision of financial services or persons or financial institutions in their territory that could contribute to DPRK's nuclear-related activities. DPRK never stopped calling for the end of the sanctions and Kim's visit to China with many key figures this time, beyond doubt, was part of the endeavor.

DPRK is still one of the poorest countries in the world. Humanitarian aid to the country has become harder and harder following its repeated nuclear tests. Food and chemical fertilizers are something badly needed in DPRK, considering the food shortages in spring days. It is Kim's main purpose to seek food and capital aid from China, and to push forward economic cooperation in large projects. And, he made it.

By People's Daily Online