(Bloomberg) -- China’s Xi Jinping told Kim Jong Un that the world wanted more nuclear talks with the U.S., drawing a complaint from the North Korean leader that he had already attempted to compromise with little success.
The Chinese president said during a landmark visit to Pyongyang on Thursday that he was willing to play a “positive and constructive role” toward achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the official Xinhua News Agency said. “The international community hopes that talks between the DPRK and the United States will move forward and bear fruit,” Xi said, referring to North Korea’s formal name.
Kim responded that North Korea had “taken many active measures to avoid tensions and control the situation on the Korean Peninsula, but has not received positive responses from the party concerned,” according to Xinhua. North Korea’s own state media reports were more general, saying only that that the two leaders agreed to strengthen “strategic” communications “amid a grave and complex” international situation.
The talks came amid a day of pageantry in the North Korean capital, in which Kim rolled out the red carpet for the first visit by a Chinese president in 14 years. Besides showcasing ties that stretch back to the 1950-53 Korean War, Xi and and Kim were expected to use the visit to stake out common ground in their current struggles with Donald Trump.
The trip, which was scheduled to continue Friday, comes just a week ahead of Xi’s planned meeting with Trump on the sidelines the Group of 20 summit in Japan, in what’s shaping up to be a possible turning point in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. The visit demonstrates China’s broader influence in the region, especially in North Korea, which relies on its larger neighbor for vital trade and security backing.
Stalled Talks
Nuclear talks between the U.S. and North Korea stalled after Trump walked out on his second meeting with Kim in February without a deal to reduce the country’s arsenal. Kim has sought to maintain his diplomatic push despite the U.S. setback, meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in April.
While Xi has stayed largely on the sidelines during talks between Trump and Kim, the country has played a key role, both by approving United Nations sanctions against North Korea and by backing Kim. Xi has hosted Kim in Beijing before both of the North Korean leader’s meetings with Trump.
The Chinese president and his wife, Peng Liyuan, were greeted by Kim at the airport and inspected an honor guard before driving past flag-waving crowds that Chinese state media said contained hundreds of thousands of people. The crowds held banners proclaiming that friendship between the two countries “shall be eternal.”
The welcome demonstrated how far the sometimes fraught ties between the two neighbors have improved since Kim made his first visit to Beijing last year. Later Thursday, Xi attended a performance of North Korea’s mass games, in which hundreds of performers engage in a display of mass choreography.
Top Officials
Xi’s entourage included top diplomats Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi, as well as He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform Commission. Kim was joined by top North Korean official Kim Yong Chol and his sister Kim Yo Jong, according the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper.
Talks between Trump and Kim have made little progress since they held a historic meeting in Singapore a year ago. The pair agreed at that meeting to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” without defining what that meant or setting deadlines.
Those negotiations broke down in February after Trump rejected Kim’s offer to close some nuclear facilities in exchange for the elimination of the most severe UN sanctions on North Korea. While China says it supports a nuclear-free Korea, it advocates a phased approach similar to Kim’s position.
Thae Yong Ho, a former North Korean ambassador to the U.K. who defected, told the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper on Thursday that the summit signaled that Kim saw China rather than South Korea as his preferred mediating partner.
“North Korea is drawing up a new plan for third summit with U.S.,” Thae told the paper. “And the starting point of that is Xi’s North Korea visit.”
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Xi pledged Thursday to continued providing security assurances and development assistance to North Korea, exchanges that have been hamstrung by international sanctions.
“China is ready within its capacity to help the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea address its legitimate security and development concerns, strengthen coordination with it and other relevant parties, and play a positive and constructive role in realizing denuclearization on the peninsula and enduring regional peace and stability,” Xi said.