Kim Jong-un visits China, a week after meeting Trump

Beijing, June 19: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday made yet another surprise visit to Beijing, just a week after his historic meet with US President Donald Trump on the Korean nuclear crisis in Singapore.

During the two-day visit, Kim is highly likely to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and give him a brief about his meeting in Singapore last week.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not reveal the purpose of Kim’s visit, saying the detailed information of his visit will be released in due course.

The development comes amid an ugly trade spat between the US and China, with experts viewing the visit as Beijing’s show of leverage it holds over Pyongyang.

This is Kim’s third visit to China since March this year and the previous two were not made public until the leader left the country.

His back-to-back China trips reflect the warming of ties between the Communist countries whose relations were hit hard after Beijing cleared UN economic sanctions on Pyongyang for firing off ballistic missiles and conducting nuclear tests.

China is the sole ally of North Korea and always appealed for calm and diplomatic approach whenever tempers frayed between Pyongyang and Washington.

In the unprecedented summit between a serving US President and a North Korean leader in Singapore, the two decided to leave the acrimonious past behind and pledged to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula. (IANS)