North Korean Leader Sends Envoy to China
SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, sent his first special envoy to China on Wednesday, the North’s state-run news agency reported, amid signs of strained ties between the two traditional allies, mainly over the North’s nuclear weapons development.
Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, who serves as director of the General Political Bureau of the North Korean People’s Army, is the first senior North Korean official to visit China since last August and the first to go there in the capacity as Mr. Kim’s special envoy.
Mr. Choe, 63, was most likely the highest-profile envoy Mr. Kim could choose. He has risen to the top military leadership under Mr. Kim and is widely seen as having been one of his closest allies as the young, relatively inexperienced North Korean leader has struggled to consolidate his power at home while intensifying a standoff with Washington and its allies over his country’s nuclear and missile programs. North Korea has recently further rattled the region by firing six short-range projectiles into waters off its east coast since Saturday.
While reporting Mr. Choe’s departure for Beijing by plane, the Korean Central News Agency did not reveal his itinerary or the purpose of his trip.
China is North Korea’s last remaining ideological ally and its single biggest trade partner and source of aid. The North’s economic dependence on China has only deepened in recent years as Washington and its allies have led efforts at the United Nations Security Council to tighten sanctions against the North for its long-range rocket and nuclear tests, including the underground detonation of a nuclear device in February.
As Washington increased pressure on China to help rein in the North’s nuclear ambitions, signs of friction have emerged between Beijing and Pyongyang, which, analysts said, have unnerved Mr. Kim.
This month, the state-controlled Bank of China said it had ceased dealing with the North Korean Foreign Trade Bank, in what appeared to be a move supported by the Chinese government to show impatience with the North. Since then, other Chinese banks have taken similar steps, dealing a blow to the operation of the North Korean bank, which is a main channel of international financial transactions for the North.
This week, another dispute erupted between the Communist allies when the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry called for the release of 16 Chinese fishermen and their vessel. They were seized May 5 in waters between the countries under unclear circumstances.
The North allowed the Chinese crew to return home with their vessel, the Chinese People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s main newspaper, reported on Tuesday, without clarifying whether North Korea received a payment, as it had demanded.
China has long supported North Korea, despite disagreements over the North’s nuclear activities, and many Chinese experts see the North as a strategic shield against potential regional domination by the United States and its allies, South Korea and Japan. But in recent months, Chinese scholars and bloggers have openly expressed increasing impatience with North Korea over its nuclear weapons ambitions and threats to the region.
Mr. Choe has been the most visible among a new lineup of officers Mr. Kim has been elevating to put his own stamp on the North's powerful military since he took over following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in late 2011.
As the political officer of the Korean People’s Army, Mr. Choe is in charge of assuring top military officers’ loyalty to Mr. Kim and ferreting out any whose allegiance is questioned. He has consistently been the highest-ranked military officer in the lineups of party and military officers accompanying Mr. Kim in state events in recent months. The orders of such lineups, reported in North Korean media, are closely monitored by outside analysts studying the structure of power in the isolated country. Mr. Choe holds at least two other key posts: member of the Politburo Presidium of the Workers’ Party of Korea and vice chairman of the Party’s Central Military Commission.
Mr. Choe has spent most of his career not in the military, but in the party apparatus. His appointment as top military leader under Mr. Kim was seen as part of the North Korean leader’s attempt to increase party control on the military, whose influence had expanded under the “military-first” policy of Mr. Kim’s father that focuses the nation’s resources on the military.
Although Mr. Kim has met senior Chinese envoys sent to Pyongyang, he has never visited Beijing while serving as North Korean leader. One of the biggest challenges he faces was how to manage his country’s traditional ties with China.
Despite its heavy economic and political reliance on China, analysts said, North Korea has never been a pliant junior partner for Beijing, continuing, for instance, to expand its nuclear arsenal despite repeated objections from China.
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