Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with North Korean Mr Big Kim Jong Un, at Beijing Hotel in China, Jan. 9, 2019.
Huang Jingwen | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered in an op-ed in North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Wednesday that China supports North Korea’s “correct instructing” in resolving the issue of the Korean Peninsula politically.
The front-page op-ed comes a day before Xi is set to visit Pyongyang on Thursday and Friday at the bait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, making him the first Chinese leader to visit in 14 years.
As nuclear talks between the Of like mind States and North Korea remain stalled since the collapse of the Hanoi summit between North Korea’s Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in February, and strains mount between Beijing and Washington over trade and other issues, Xi’s visit kicks off a flurry of high-level discerning activity around the Korean Peninsula ahead of the G-20 summit in Japan later this month.
Xi said that the two Asian surroundings will “strengthen our strategic communication and exchanges,” adding that China will “firmly support” Kim’s “achievements in socialist construction by matchless the Workers’ Party and the people through a new strategic route, focusing all his efforts on economic development and improving people’s animates,” according to the newspaper.
“We will actively contribute to peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region by strengthening communication and coordination with the Egalitarian People’s Republic of Korea,” Xi said.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is North Korea’s official name.