China’s top diplomat meets visiting NK party secretary

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday met a senior North Korean ruling party official and his delegation in Beijing, and reiterated China’s commitment to cementing bilateral relations, according to his party.

Wang held the talks with Kim Song-nam, a member of the Political Bureau of the Workers’ Party of Korea and a party secretary, according to a post on the official WeChat account of the International Department of the Communist Party of China’s central committee.

Kim’s delegation arrived in Beijing on Tuesday as China and the North are seeking to reinforce their cooperation after bilateral relations apparently weakened amid deepening alignment between Moscow and Pyongyang over the war in Ukraine.

During the meeting, Wang noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reached a series of “important consensuses” for better bilateral relations during Xi’s visit to Pyongyang in June, stressing Beijing’s willingness to “resolutely” implement those consensuses, according to the post.

The top Chinese diplomat also voiced hopes for the bilateral ties to develop “deeply, substantially and positively” for the benefit of both countries.

The North Korean official portrayed Xi’s visit to the North in June as a “new milestone” for bilateral ties that met the “demands of the new era,” according to the post.

He also recalled the North Korean leader’s recent trip to the Chinese border city of Dandong, saying the visit reaffirmed the “strategic nature of the blood-cemented friendship.”

Thursday’s meeting came amid persistent speculation that U.S. President Donald Trump could seek to resume summitry with the North Korean leader possibly during his trip to Asia to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit set to take place on Nov. 18-19 in Shenzhen, China.