Roundup: U.S. experts, media express positive views on DPRK leader's visit to China

WASHINGTON, March 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. experts and media on Wednesday expressed positive views on the just-concluded unofficial visit to China by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s top leader Kim Jong Un.

Details of the visit, especially Kim's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, have been scrutinized on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

In an article published on Wednesday, the New York Times noticed that "Mr. Xi showed considerable warmth toward Mr. Kim, smiling widely and offering affectionate embraces. Mr. Kim returned the fondness, waving enthusiastically as he departed."

Analysts said the visit has showed to the world that the China-DPRK friendship, forged through the two nations' shared experiences in times of war and peace, is capable of enduring and coping with the rapid changes of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

A Washington Post piece issued on the same day said the meeting between Xi and Kim "showcased enduring bonds between the two countries."

Douglas Paal, vice president for studies at the U.S. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Xinhua via email that Kim was following his father, who traveled to China as the DPRK's top leader in 2000 on the eve of his first-ever meeting with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung.

Kim Jong Un, by his visit to China, also signaled to the United States that the DPRK must be taken seriously in the upcoming talks, said Troy Stangarone, senior director at the Korea Economic Institute, a Washington-based non-profit policy research institution.

With the visit, China "is to remind all the parties that China has a voice in the future of the Peninsula" and wants the region to denuclearize, said Carnegie's Paal.

Michael J. Mazarr, a senior political scientist at the U.S. RAND Corporation, also told Xinhua that China has sent a signal through the visit that "it has an established relationship with the DPRK."

Whether from a short-term or a long-term perspective, the meeting between Xi and Kim will consolidate the world's confidence in and commitment to the peaceful settlement of current issues, said U.S. experts and media outlets.

"In the short term, experts see the meeting as a sign that the Trump summit is likely to go ahead," the Washington Post article read.

Ryan Hass, a Brookings scholar focusing on China and Asia, said in an article published on Wednesday that "the more Washington is able to adapt by bolstering coordination and building cohesion with Beijing ... on a common approach for dealing with North Korea, the better the odds that Trump will be able to use his planned upcoming meeting with Kim to push the North Korea challenge down a peaceful path." Enditem

(Matthew Rusling from Washington also contributed to the story.)