Xi Jinping’s visit to South Korea embarrassed Kim Jung Un

Xi’s visit to Korea on 3 and 4 July was first announced by China’s foreign affairs on 27 June. North Korea’s defense committee proposed on 30 June to terminate mutual slander with South Korea on 4 July.

Xi’s previous 2 predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao both visited North Korea when they were newly ascended to their thrones before visiting the South. This round, Xi reversed the practice.

Dagong Net quoted a researcher from Shanghai’s Social Science Institute, saying China originally wanted to stick to original practice to first visit the North before proceeding to the South. However, it was quoted that the North did not cooperate with their requests. According to the original plan, Kim was supposed to first visit Xi in Beijing before Xi goes to North, then the South. Since the early 50s in the last century, Beijing has always deemed the North and fellow comrades bonded over war.

The Norths have their historical reasons for being unhappy about Xi’s move. In 1992, China established relationship with South Korea. In the same year’s July, China’s foreign affairs minister Qian Qishen visited North’s Kim II-Sung to elucidate the developments. The senior Kim said: China will decide their internal affairs. Qian recalled in his memoir that in the decade of relationship with the North, the senior Kim only briefly glanced at the gifts from China and then bid farewell. Qian said: that was the shortest meeting of Kim with Chinese officials, and that there were no functions to host the Chinese thereafter as per practice. This demonstrated the senior Kim’s unhappiness with China establishing contacts with the South.

Chaozhong news agency reported on 30 June that North Korea’s actions have been irregular, and got worse with Kim Jung Un’s ascension to the throne. For instance, Kim already called for termination to the mutual slander with the South during his New Year speech. This was already acknowledged by both the South and the North in February. However, within two months, the North’s propaganda organization started verbally attacking South’s president Park Geun-hye. The moment the North stopped chiding, they start to talk about how Korea should be united. Such action was deemed totally fickle minded.

After China reported on Xi’s visit to the South on 27 June, the North filed 2 missiles.

It was reported that North’s Kim was very unhappy about Xi’s visit to South and not the North. It was also reported that Xi has discussed with Park during the two days meeting in Seoul on the solutions to end nuclear warfare and unification of the peninsular. These two questions are the most dreaded by Kim.

It was also reported that within a short period, Kim would do something significant. He would likely make an official visit for the first time since his reign, not to China, but to Russia. Reports also stated that Kim has not connected with China’s leaders since his ascension. This makes him much inferior compared to his father. It was reported that since the death of Kim Jong-il in December 2011, the leaders of North and China have not had any official meetings.

Analysts also commented: China and South Korea would likely issue an official joint statement on 4 July with North Korea being a major concern. The North is playing with the stick of missile and carrot of peace in the peninsular and seems to be acting in a matured manner. However, be it carrot or stick, credibility is critical to effectiveness. To a country that is credit-bankrupt, no one is willing to believe in its words or deeds.

Wong Teck Yenn, John