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Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong’s visit to North Korea this week is second Beijing delegation to Pyongyang in months

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A Chinese delegation led by Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong will visit Pyongyang this week in the second high-level Chinese government visit to North Korea this year.

North Korean state-owned Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) announced on Thursday that Liu would attend celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean government on Saturday.

“On the invitation of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), a party and government delegation of the People’s Republic of China headed by Liu Guozhong …[will] participate in the celebrations of the 75th birthday of the DPRK,” KCNA reported.

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On September 9 North Korea celebrates its “Day of the Foundation of the Republic”. This year marks the 75th anniversary since the northern part of the peninsula established a socialist government after Soviet occupation in 1948, three years after Korea gained independence from Japan and was divided into a communist North and capitalist South.

Liu’s visit comes less than two months after Li Hongzhong, also a member of the Politburo and the vice-chairman of the standing committee of China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, headed the Chinese delegation to Pyongyang in July to attend the military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Korean war armistice.

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Li was the first Chinese official to visit North Korea since 2019, when Chinese President Xi Jinping made a state visit to Pyongyang. The hermit kingdom locked down its border in 2020 and did not accept any foreign delegations during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
North Korea slowly started to open up its border to foreign officials this year. Last month, North Korean state carrier Air Koryo landed in Beijing for the first time in three years, enabling citizens staying abroad to enter the country. Rail cargo trade between China and North Korea also resumed last year after a two-year hiatus.
China was only one of the two foreign delegations present at the 70th anniversary parade in July, along with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. The pair stood shoulder to shoulder alongside North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and watched North Korea present its latest ballistic missiles, weapons that are prohibited under United Nations Security Council resolutions.

In 2018, Li Zhanshu, then NPC Standing Committee chairman and the third-ranking official in the Politburo, attended the 70th anniversary celebrations of North Korea’s founding.

The choice of the lower ranked Li Hongzhong and Liu Guozhong to lead the Chinese delegations may imply Beijing is downplaying its relations with Pyongyang, says an analyst.

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“Compared to sending Li Zhanshu to the 70th anniversary event in 2018, I think there still is an intention to [downplay relations with North Korea],” said Lee Sang-sook, a research professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, a Seoul-based think tank.

“From China’s perspective, North Korea’s repeated provocations and build-up of weapons of mass destruction not only heighten tensions in the Korean peninsula, but also serve as a cause of strengthening trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the US and Japan, which is interpreted as a political burden on security cooperation with North Korea.”

On Monday, The New York Times, citing a US official, reported that Kim Jong-un might visit Vladivostok next week to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin. It would be Kim’s first trip outside North Korea since the pandemic started.

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The two leaders are likely to discuss arms deal between their countries, exchanging North Korean artillery shells and anti-tank missiles for Moscow’s advanced technology for satellites and nuclear-powered submarines.

South Korean spy agency the National Intelligence Service also said on Monday Russia’s Defence Minister Shoigu had suggested joint military exercises between North Korea, China and Russia when he met Kim in July.

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