Kim Jong-un trifft Xi Jinping, wenn sein globaler Status wächst

***From The Times:***

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, sealed his rising international status on Thursday with a sit-down meeting with President Xi, his first for six years.

The Chinese president offered to help bring North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, further in from the cold. “China is willing to work with the DPRK to strengthen strategic communication and deepen the exchange of experience in governance,” China’s foreign ministry said.

One reason for China’s frustration with North Korea has been its refusal to follow the Chinese economic model set by the late Deng Xiaoping, of opening up to the world and allowing freer international and domestic trade.

Kim has shown signs of wanting to modernise the economy, if only to avoid the crippling famines that have afflicted his country in the past.

Beijing also feels that Pyongyang has never expressed enough gratitude for the huge losses China sustained on behalf of the Kim regime in the Korean War. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops lost their lives in “human wave” attacks against better-equipped South Korean, American and British forces after intervening to prevent North Korea’s defeat in 1950.