North Korea turns on charm to China as Kim Jong-un turns diplomat

By JEAN H LEE
Published on 04/08/2012 00:00

North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong-un, has hosted a dinner in Pyongyang for senior political officials from China, marking his diplomatic debut and suggesting he is turning his attention to foreign affairs.

Mr Kim talked to a Chinese delegation led by Wang Jiarui, head of the Communist Party’s international affairs office, and invited the group to a dinner attended by North Korea’s political elite, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

Reports from official media in China said the talks saw Mr Kim say he is focused on boosting his country’s broken economy.

Mr Kim, who is believed to be 29, has been swift in moving to build loyalty among North 
Korea’s 24 million people and to establish control over key institutions such as the military and ruling Workers’ Party.

He also has been quick to show his rule will differ in focus and style from that of his father, who kept his personal life out of the state media, rarely travelled abroad and met only selectively with foreign dignitaries.

After gaining the new title of marshal and shuffling the military leadership last month, Kim Jong-un made the surprise introduction of his wife, Ri Sol-ju.

At the talks with the Chinese, he reiterated his government’s focus on building the economy, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.

Seated next to him was vice-premier Kang Sok-ju, the seasoned diplomat who accompanied Mr Kim’s father to China last year.

“Developing the economy and improving livelihoods so that the [North] Korean people lead happy and civilised lives are the goals the Workers’ Party is struggling towards,” the news agency reported Mr Kim as telling Mr Wang.

China, which sent troops to support North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, remains Pyongyang’s main ally and biggest benefactor. That relationship has deepened in recent years as North Korea increasingly turns to China to provide much-needed food, oil and trade and oil.

While North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, welcomed a string of foreign guests and traveled overseas regularly until his death in 1994, Kim Jong-il met few visitors during his later years and rarely travelled abroad – then only by train.

He already has demonstrated more of a willingness to rub shoulders with foreigners, including westerners, than his father. Foreign diplomats and officials were among those 
invited to attend the opening ceremony late last month of 
the new Rungna Island fairgrounds.

One photograph showed a British diplomat, Barnaby Jones, seated on a roller-coaster one row from Mr Kim – an image that sparked speculation about Mr Kim’s mysterious foreign friend.