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The Korean Central News Agency reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un conducted on-the-spot-guidance at the Sungri Motor Plant in Tokchon

Song Tao, head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) International Liaison Department, appears not to have met with leader Kim Jong-un during his recent visit to North Korea as a special envoy for Chinese President Xi Jinping. Analysts are now turning their attention to possible reasons for the meeting’s failure to happen.

Neither the Korean Workers’ Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun nor the CCP newspaper People’s Daily mentioned a meeting with Kim in their Nov. 21 reports on Song’s return to China. In a regular briefing that day, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said he had “nothing further to add” on Song’s visit. A Rodong Sinmun front page story the same day reported that Kim had conducted on-the-spot-guidance at the Sungri Motor Plant in Tokchon, South Pyongan Province.

It is seen as highly unusual in North Korea-China relations for a special envoy for one side’s top leader not to meet with the other side’s top leader. Then-Propaganda Department chief Liu Yunshan met with then-leader Kim Jong-il ten years ago when visiting as a special envoy to report on the outcome of a CCP National Congress like Song, while National People’s Congress vice chairman Li Jianguo met with Kim Jong-un during his visit five years ago.

Experts saw it as a sign of how chilly relations have gotten between Pyongyang and Beijing.

“It appears Song was unable to meet with Kim because the two sides’ interests are at odds,” said Ajou University Chinese Policy Research Institute Director Kim Heung-gyu. In particular, he noted the fundamental difficulty of the two sides having dialogue when Beijing is emphasizing a “freeze-for-freeze” approach of simultaneously halting North Korean nuclear and missile testing and large-scale South Korea-US military exercises, while North Korea remains undaunted in its commitment to developing nuclear weapons and missiles.

Some Chinese experts are taking the situation as showing the limits of what Beijing can do on the nuclear issue. “If a meeting failed to happen, that means North Korea does not want any more pressure from China, which suggests China’s direct influence on North Korea is limited,” said Carnegie-Tsinghua Center research fellow Zhao Tong.

Another Chinese expert said North Korea has “clearly shown that it wants to have dialogue with the US, not China.”

Some also maintain that Song did achieve the original goal of his visit as special envoy – to meet with Politburo Standing Committee member Choi Ryong-hae and vice chairman Ri Su-yong to report on the National Congress’s outcome – which could be seen as indicating an end to the long break in senior-level interchange between the two sides.

“It’s significant as an official beginning to North Korea-China interchange,” said Sungkyun Institute of China Studies professor Yang Gab-yong.

“As interaction resumes after the break, we can expect to see more examples [of these meetings] in the future,” Yang predicted.

Analysts also saw the persistent chill in North Korea-China relations as likely to complicate resolution of the nuclear issue.

“The US keeps applying pressure, and China doesn’t have any other options besides pressure now either,” said Ajou University’s Kim. “It’s also tough for South Korea to pursue contact with North Korea single-handedly.”

“What’s available for us to do when you have one power pitted against another is to prepare a ‘Plan B’ for what to do once North Korea completes its nuclear and missile development.”

By Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent and Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

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