Kim Song-nam, the international secretary of North Korea's Workers' Party, arrived back in Pyongyang on November 7 after leading a party delegation on an official visit to China, according to Yonhap News Agency. During the trip he met a series of senior Chinese Communist Party figures and toured several institutions in Beijing, Shanghai and Qingdao.
Yonhap reported that An Hyon-min, a deputy department director of the Workers' Party Central Committee, and Chinese Ambassador to North Korea Wang Yajun greeted the delegation at Pyongyang International Airport. Before departure from Beijing, the delegation was seen off by Liu Haixing, head of the Communist Party's International Department, and North Korean Ambassador to China Ri Ryong-nam.
Why it matters
The visit is read as a step toward carrying out agreements reached at the June summit in Pyongyang between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and toward widening exchanges between the two ruling parties. Kim Song-nam oversees the Workers' Party's external relations, and his trip came just ten days after Kim Jong-un made a surprise visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong last month. He traveled to China on November 3 at the invitation of the Communist Party Central Committee, Yonhap reported.
A tour of the party's training institution
According to Yonhap, the delegation visited the Central Party School, the training and research institution where the Chinese Communist Party educates senior and mid-level cadres in party ideology, policy and governance. Sun Haiyan, a deputy head of the International Department, accompanied the group.
The delegation was briefed on how the school upholds the party's thought and line and contributes to socialist construction through theoretical innovation and the training of leading officials, and was shown around its facilities, the report said. The agency added that the delegation also toured the Shanghai People's City Practice Exhibition Hall, the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center and the Haier Group's ecological experience center in Qingdao, Shandong Province.
Meetings with senior Chinese officials
Yonhap reported that Kim met Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who also heads the Communist Party's Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office, on November 5. The following day he held talks with Chai Qi, a Standing Committee member of the Politburo and a secretary of the Central Secretariat who ranks fifth in the party hierarchy, and with Liu Haixing, the International Department chief.
KBS News reported that the meeting with Liu was Kim's third high-level session during the visit. Kyonghyang Shinmun reported that Chai Qi spoke of expanding exchanges and cooperation during his meeting with Kim. Money Today described Kim as a close aide to Kim Jong-un and noted his meeting with Chai Qi, who is likewise regarded as close to Xi Jinping.
Seoul Economic Daily reported that Wang Yi said China is willing to provide support, in coverage that also noted speculation about a possible North Korea–United States summit gaining momentum. That report is attributed to the outlet and is not confirmed by the other sources cited here.
Yonhap said the North Korean delegation's meetings with senior Chinese party figures served to reaffirm both countries' and both parties' intention to deepen and develop their relationship.
What to watch is whether the party-level exchanges agreed during this visit translate into concrete follow-up contacts between Pyongyang and Beijing in the coming weeks.
