First senior DPRK diplomat in 9 months visiting

Pyongyang dispatched a senior diplomat to Beijing on Tuesday for talks amid China's efforts to stabilize the Korean Peninsula.

The five-day visit by Ri Kil-song, vice-minister of foreign affairs for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, opens a chance for dialogue to avoid an arms race on the peninsula, analysts said.

Ri, visiting at the invitation of China's Foreign Ministry, will meet with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other Chinese diplomats, including Vice-Minister Liu Zhenmin and Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou, ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular news conference on Tuesday.

It is the first visit of a senior DPRK diplomat to Beijing in about nine months. Ri, also vice-chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing in June.

"This visit of the DPRK vice-minister represents a normal diplomatic contact and exchange between China and the DPRK," Geng said.

The visit comes nine days after China suspended all coal imports from the DPRK to discourage Pyongyang from additional advances in its weapons program.

The suspension followed Pyongyang's test firing of a new medium-to-long-range ballistic missile on Feb 12.

Ruan Zongze, executive vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said China is demonstrating its "full implementation" of the United Nations Security Council resolutions on the Korean nuclear issue by inviting the DPRK official for a visit.

China opposes DPRK actions that go against the resolutions, but it also is putting into practice the resolutions' call for dialogue to solve the Korean nuclear issue, Ruan said.

"Ultimately, the issue needs to be solved through diplomacy. China inviting Ri provides a very good opportunity for communication," he said.

Wang Junsheng, a researcher in Northeast Asia studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China and the DPRK have "maintained strategic communication".

On Feb 17, Wang Yi, the foreign minister, said at the Munich Security Conference that Beijing had not given up hope for new talks on the peninsula's nuclear issue.

Contact the writers at anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn