Chinese foreign minister to visit Pyongyang after historic talks

BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is to visit North Korea this week, after historic talks between the North and South last Friday.
The trip comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity following the landmark day on the peninsula.
China is North Korea’s only remaining economically, but this will be its highest level visit there in years. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is expected to meet US President Donald Trump in the coming weeks.
South Korea has already spoken to the leaders of US and Japan.
According to Beijing, Mr Wang’s visit on Wednesday and Thursday is being made at the invitation of the government in Pyongyang.
In March, Mr Kim made a surprise visit to Beijing to see President Xi Jinping, his first international trip since taking office, underlining the importance to Pyongyang of its relationship with China.
The North Korean leader and the South’s President Moon Jae-in agreed at a historic summit to “completely cease all hostile acts against each other” and to work towards denuclearising the Korean peninsula.
The meeting followed months of warlike rhetoric and missile tests from the North.
The commitment to denuclearisation talks about the goal of “a nuclear-free Korean peninsula”. It does not explicitly refer to North Korea halting its nuclear activities. South Korea does not have its own nuclear weapons, but is militarily backed by the US, which has tens of thousands of troops stationed there.
According to Seoul, North Korea promised to close its atomic test site next month and invite US weapons experts to the country – a promise not included in the joint declaration from the summit.
North Korea has in the past argued it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against aggression from outside, especially the US.