North Korea Leadership Watch

Research and Analysis on the DPRK Leadership

Choe Tae Bok to Visit PRC Tuesday

Choe Tae-pok

Choe Tae-pok, CC KWP Secretary and Political Bureau member, will travel to Beijing on Tuesday (30 November) for a five day trip to the PRC.  Choe is likely to discuss the DPRK’s 23 November attack on YP-do, among other issues.  On 26 November Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi met with DPRK Ambassador to PRC Ji Jae Ryong.  NHK reports:

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency says North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly Chairman,
Choe Tae Bok, will visit China for 5 days at the invitation of Wu Bangguo, the chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee.

Choe is an aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, and frequently accompanies him on his visits.

He went to China right after the selection of Kim’s 3rd son Jong Un as his successor at the conference of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party in September, and explained the party’s decision to Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Choe is expected to convey Kim’s message about the mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula, triggered by the North’s bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island on Tuesday, and to engage in frank discussions on future responses.

On Sunday the PRC media reported Wu Dawei’s proposal for an emergency meeting of Six Party Talk participants:

“The Chinese side, after careful studies, proposes having emergency consultations among the nuclear envoys in early December in Beijing to exchange views on major issues of concern to the parties at present,” Wu Dawei, Beijing’s chief nuclear negotiator, was quoted as saying on China’s state-run CCTV.

The international community is interested in whether to reopen the six-nation nuclear talks, which will help preserve peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and contribute to stability in Northeast Asia, he said.

China’s consistent stance is that the six-party talks plays an important role in promoting communication among the countries involved and advance the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Wu added.

“Although the proposed consultations do not mean the resumption of the six-party talks, we hope they will create conditions for their resumption,” he said.

China’s call came five days after North Korea fired a barrage of artillery rounds toward Yeonpyeong Island near the tense Yellow Sea border, killing two South Korean marines and as many civilians and leaving 18 others wounded.

 

 

 

An affiliate of 38 North