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By Park Min-hee, Beijing correspondent
China and North Korea discussed Korean Peninsula issues at their first senior-level talks since the latter’s recent rocket launch.
Communist Party of China international liaison department chief Wang Jiarui met with Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) international affairs secretary Kim Yong-il in Beijing on Saturday for strategic party-level talks. They exchanged views on international and local issues, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency also announced that a WPK delegation led by Kim had traveled to China on Friday.
While there was no word on whether the two countries discussed North Korea’s recent rocket launch at the talks, sources suggested the discussions focused on the political situation in the wake of that launch.
A diplomatic source in Beijing said, “To the rest of the world, China is clearly stating its opposition to additional sanctions that might destabilize North Korea, but to Pyongyang it gave a clear warning that it should not engage in any further provocations that might make the situation worse, such as a third nuclear test.
"We also believe North Korea briefed Beijing on the appointment of Kim Jong-un to first secretary at the recent WPK representatives’ meeting," the source added.
The talks between Pyongyang and Beijing came at a chilly time between the countries. China was unusually critical of North Korea after its rocket launch and didn’t stand in the way of a United Nations Security Council president’s statement condemning Pyongyang’s actions.
As the meeting took place on Saturday, typically a day off, and the North Korean delegation arrived via Air China on a day when there were no Beijing flights for the North Korean carrier Air Koryo, observers suggested Pyongyang was troubled by China’s strong response and hurriedly arranged the talks in an effort at appeasement.
Xinhua said these were the second strategic talks between North Korea and China, after a first set in North Korea in June 2011.
In the wake of the rocket launch, Beijing has reportedly been expressing its displeasure with North Korea, temporarily halting the forcible repatriation of defectors who were captured in China. Sources also said it has stepped up its customs procedures for goods traveling to and from North Korea through the border city of Dandong on the Yalu (Amnok) River.
In a recent editorial in the state-run Global Times, China warned that North Korea would "end up paying a steep price if it adopts a ‘hostage’ strategy where it believes China will shelter it no matter what it does."
　
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