Xi Jinping lands in North Korea for Kim Jong Un meeting

{"text":[[{"start":7.85,"text":"Chinese President Xi Jinping has landed in Pyongyang for his first trip to North Korea in seven years, just days after the country’s leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed his ambitions for “exponential” expansion of his nuclear arsenal."}],[{"start":21.1,"text":"Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju welcomed Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan at Pyongyang’s international airport on Monday and later greeted them again in the North Korean capital’s main square, accompanied by an honour guard and thousands of people cheering and waving. Giant portraits of both leaders overlooked the scene."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":40.900000000000006,"text":"The Xi-Kim meeting comes after the North Korean leader has pursued closer economic and military ties with Russia in recent years. Many analysts believe China wants to push North Korea to talk to its neighbours, including on denuclearisation, as Kim has become increasingly bombastic about his nuclear ambitions. "}],[{"start":60.300000000000004,"text":"“From China’s perspective, [North Korea] should be engaging with neighbouring countries in talks on peace and denuclearisation,” said Zhu Feng, an international relations expert at Nanjing University."}],[{"start":73.05000000000001,"text":"“More importantly, it should be seeking economic and social engagement with its neighbours to ensure it becomes less isolated and more oriented towards peace,” he said."}],[{"start":82.95000000000002,"text":"Xi’s trip also follows a flurry of recent summits in Beijing, where the Chinese president has recently hosted US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. "}],[{"start":92.65000000000002,"text":"During Trump’s first term, the US and North Korea held successive rounds of negotiations over denuclearisation. But the talks fell through at a high-profile summit between Trump and Kim — their third meeting — in Hanoi in 2019."}],[{"start":109.10000000000002,"text":"More recently, Kim has signalled to the US that it was open to renewed talks with Washington, with conditions. Kim has previously said he had “good personal memories” of Trump and there was “no reason not to” talk if the US “abandons its delusional obsession with denuclearisation”."}],[{"start":126.35000000000002,"text":"“North Korea wants to send a message to the US: ‘I am not your enemy’,” said Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based scholar. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":134.05,"text":"Kim last visited China in September, where he stood alongside Xi and Putin at Beijing’s extravagant 80th anniversary celebrations marking the end of the second world war."}],[{"start":145.85000000000002,"text":"Prior to that trip, he inspected production lines and plans for North Korea’s Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile. Last week, Kim visited a nuclear material facility and made statements about the “anachronistic” idea of denuclearisation."}],[{"start":160.8,"text":"“North Korea has its own mind. They don’t do things at anybody else’s bidding, including Beijing,” said Ja Ian Chong, associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore."}],[{"start":172.35000000000002,"text":"North Korea is executing an “ambitious future plan designed to beef up our state’s nuclear forces at an exponential rate”, the state-owned Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim as saying."}],[{"start":183.85000000000002,"text":"Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s sister and an important government spokesperson, added on Sunday that the country’s “status as a nuclear power is an absolute and inviolable boundary”, according to Rodong Sinmun, the regime’s official mouthpiece."}],[{"start":199.75000000000003,"text":"Pyongyang has also dropped its commitment to future “reunification” with South Korea, a move that experts said formalised the division of the Korean peninsula by defining the adversaries as separate states."}],[{"start":211.35000000000002,"text":"North Korea has played its giant neighbours off each other to its advantage, deepening ties with Russia and sending troops to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Analysts said the closer relationship with Russia irritated China, which maintains a mutual defence treaty with Pyongyang and has historically provided its economic lifeline."}],[{"start":230.65000000000003,"text":"Experts said Xi’s visit marked an effort to repair ties with Pyongyang that have been strained by Kim’s closer co-operation with Russia."}],[{"start":238.60000000000002,"text":"“For Xi, going to Pyongyang and renewing ties with Kim helps to ensure that North Korea doesn’t get too close to Russia relative to China itself,” said Peter Ward of the Sejong Institute in Seoul. “He wants to keep North Korea close.”"}],[{"start":255.00000000000003,"text":"Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University, said China could provide some economic benefits such as tourism, which was a grey area under UN sanctions on North Korea."}],[{"start":267.35,"text":"The leaders could also discuss Taiwan and Japan. Beijing’s rhetoric towards Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has become increasingly harsh since she said last year that any conflict over Taiwan would be “existential” for her country."}],[{"start":282.85,"text":"This enraged leaders in Beijing, who view Taiwan as part of Chinese territory."}],[{"start":288.65000000000003,"text":"“There is a possibility of close discussions regarding not only the US but also Japan’s military expansion,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies of Kyungnam University."}],[{"start":302.95000000000005,"text":"Additional reporting by Kang Buseong in Seoul"}],[{"start":313.15000000000003,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780919047_4512.mp3"}