During Kim Jong-un's visit to China, all eyes were on Trump... Will we revive the spark of dialogue between North Korea and North Korea?

With North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un making a surprise visit to China on the 24th, attention is being paid to whether the spark of dialogue between North Korea and the United States will be revived in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to Asia next month.

There are observations that Chairman Kim's visit to China could become a new variable for the North Korea-US summit, which had been highly anticipated for a while but was recently evaluated as unlikely.

On this day, Chairman Kim visited Dandong, Liaoning Province, China, met with Wang Huning, Chairman of the National People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), who is fourth in the Chinese power hierarchy, and confirmed his intention to expand economic cooperation between North Korea and China.

According to China's official Xinhua News Agency, Chairman Kim expressed his will to expand practical cooperation during his meeting with President Wang, saying that the two countries' "prospects for cooperation are very broad," and President Wang responded that he would expand people-to-people traffic and economic and trade cooperation with the opening of the New Yalu River Bridge.

After inspecting an automobile factory with President Wang, Chairman Kim left Dandong after seeing him off.

Chairman Kim's visit to China attracts attention in that it takes place ahead of President Trump's attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held in Shenzhen, China on the 18th and 19th of next month.

In his second term in office, President Trump has repeatedly emphasized his close relationship with Chairman Kim and has shown an active will to resume North Korea-US dialogue.

Last August, he mentioned plans to meet with Chairman Kim within the year, raising the prospect that a surprise meeting between the leaders of North Korea and the United States could take place during his trip to Asia.

However, with North Korea showing no apparent response to President Trump's repeated gestures for dialogue, the assessment that the possibility of a successful summit was low was being weighed recently.

President Trump also showed a more cautious attitude than before, saying "I don't know" about the possibility of a meeting with Chairman Kim following his attendance at the APEC summit on the 19th.

“I’m not sure who is requesting the meeting, but my relationship with Kim Jong-un is very good,” Trump said.

Reuters reported the previous day that South Korean and U.S. officials believe there is little chance of a North Korea-U.S. summit being held within the year.

Anonymous sources who were briefed on the matter by high-ranking officials of both countries said that the United States had proposed holding a North Korea-US summit, but had not received a response from North Korea, and that there was not enough time left until the APEC summit next month.

In this situation, Chairman Kim's surprise visit to China is attracting attention in that it could become a new variable in the possibility of resuming the North Korea-US dialogue, which has not made much progress.

Even during the first Trump administration, Chairman Kim had a history of visiting China and consulting with Chinese President Xi Jinping prior to the North Korea-US summit.

Prior to the first North Korea-US summit held in Singapore in June 2018, he visited China in March and May of the same year, and also met with President Xi in Beijing in January of that year ahead of the Hanoi meeting in February 2019.

At the summit with President Xi, Chairman Kim, who visited Beijing on a private train in 2019, discussed related issues ahead of the North Korea-US summit and ways to strengthen North Korea-China relations.

President Trump also has an incentive to seek new diplomatic results by resuming dialogue with Chairman Kim during his Asia trip following the November 3 midterm elections.

In particular, given that President Trump has touted the past North Korea-US summit as his representative diplomatic achievement, there is a possibility that this visit to China will once again send a gesture of dialogue to Chairman Kim.

However, some point out that there is a need to be cautious in interpreting Chairman Kim's visit to China as a preliminary stoppage for the North Korea-U.S. summit.

This is because Chairman Kim met with President Wang instead of holding a separate summit with President Xi and concluded the visit on the same day. In fact, during this visit to China, the main agenda was the expansion of trade between the two countries following the opening of the New Yalu River Bridge.

This shows the possibility that this visit to China was a move that focused on strengthening economic cooperation between North Korea and China rather than strategic consultations in preparation for dialogue between the United States and the United States.

The fact that North Korea is drawing a line in denuclearization negotiations by demanding recognition as a nuclear state is also an obstacle to the resumption of dialogue between North Korea and the United States.

In particular, there is an analysis that there is not much need for North Korea to rush into dialogue with the United States as its external economic conditions have improved, such as by expanding military and economic cooperation with Russia and strengthening relations with China in the wake of the Ukraine war.

In the end, some say that the success of the North Korea-US summit depends on how flexible President Trump is on the issue of denuclearization.

When asked on the 19th of last month whether the goal of resuming dialogue with Chairman Kim was to denuclearize North Korea, President Trump avoided answering, saying, "I don't want to talk about that." This was analyzed as an incentive to bring Chairman Kim to the negotiating table, and there were concerns that the denuclearization agenda could be pushed to the back burner in the North Korea-US dialogue.

The Trump administration's position is that it is 'open to dialogue without preconditions.' However, in a situation where North Korea rejects demands for denuclearization, it is unclear whether President Trump will push for a meeting between the leaders, even putting off denuclearization discussions.