Kim Jong Un to attend China army parade with Putin and Xi : NPR

In this picture supplied by the North Korean authorities, Kim Jong Un speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the cellphone at an undisclosed location in North Korea, Aug. 12. Independent journalists weren’t given entry to cowl the occasion depicted on this picture and its content material can’t be independently verified.

Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service by way of AP

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Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service by way of AP

SEOUL, South Korea — When North Korean chief Kim Jong Un visits China subsequent week for a army parade, he’ll be gathering with international leaders for the primary time, at a uncommon occasion with the heads of China, Russia and North Korea all collectively.

The Sept. 3 parade marks the tip of World War II after Japan’s formal give up to Allied forces. China’s Foreign Ministry says the occasion commemorates China’s victory
over “Japanese aggression.”

Kim’s resolution to attend the occasion was reported by South Korean and North Korean information shops.

China’s State Council this week published a list of 26 leaders it stated would attend that may additionally embrace the leaders of Iran, Cuba, Belarus and Serbia. Slovakia is up to now the one NATO member on the checklist.

North Korea rebalances ties with Moscow and Beijing

This may also be Kim’s first recognized go to to China since 2019. He and Chinese chief Xi Jinping met 5 occasions between 2018 and 2019.

But since then, Kim has drawn nearer to Russia, signing a mutual protection treaty with the Kremlin and sending 1000’s of troops to Russia to struggle Ukraine.

“This is a major mending of the fence, I would say, between China and North Korea,” says John Delury, a Seoul-based senior fellow at Asia Society, a nonprofit academic group. “This puts the strategic relationship of the leaders back on some kind of even keel.”

With President Trump making an attempt to dealer a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, Delury says that Kim could also be anticipating that he may have much less leverage with Moscow, and should need to contemplate resuming talks with the U.S.

Trump stated this week at a summit assembly with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung that he hopes to fulfill once more with Kim, as he did thrice in 2018 and 2019.

A doable opening for Trump

In addition to Kim seeing the necessity to enhance ties with China, Delury says, the North Koreans may be “looking over their shoulder at Donald Trump, and see what may be in play with the Americans.”

Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong has indicated that Pyongyang has no real interest in resuming talks with the U.S. But she stated in a statement in state media that Trump and Kim have a “special personal relationship” and might meet once more if the U.S. drops its “outdated way of thinking.”

The South Korean authorities nationwide safety adviser Wi Sung-lac stated in an interview with the nation’s CBS radio that it will be greatest to maintain expectations about engagement with North Korea low, for now. Although, he stated, Kim’s China journey “is a development that requires close attention.”

South Korean President Lee won’t attend the parade, however the authorities can be represented by Parliamentary Speaker Woo Won-shik.

Concerns of a brand new chilly battle grouping

Doo Jin-ho, senior researcher on the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, is quoted by South Korea’s Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper as saying Kim’s attendance on the parade suggests the emergence of a “new Cold War structure,” with North Korea counting on Russia for army cooperation and China for financial relations.

China and Russia have cooperated in serving to North Korea keep away from worldwide sanctions imposed due to its nuclear and missile packages. 

And China and North Korea have helped Russia in several methods with its battle in Ukraine. But the three nations’ free alignment just isn’t institutionalized, not like the U.S., South Korea and Japan, which established a trilateral secretariat final yr.

Nor have China, Russia and North Korea held trilateral army drills, because the U.S. and its allies have.

Chinese media, in the meantime, have centered on preparations for the parade, and China’s contributions to victory in World War II, formally recognized within the nation because the “Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.”

That battle began with Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931, a decade earlier than Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Some 35 million Chinese troopers and civilians had been killed or wounded within the battle, in keeping with official Chinese authorities figures.

The People’s Daily newspaper quoted chief Xi Jinping on a go to to a battlefield memorial final month, instructing the nation to “tell the story of the War of Resistance well, and pass on the great spirit of the War of Resistance from Generation to Generation.”

NPR’s Se Eun Gong contributed to this report in Seoul.