08 May 2018•Update: 08 May 2018
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met Chinese President Xi Jinping for a two-day summit this week, according to official media in both nations Tuesday.
The secretive talks were only unveiled after their conclusion earlier in the day, as was the case when Kim took an unannounced train to Beijing in late March for his first ever trip abroad since rising to power in 2011.
Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency reported Kim took a special plane to Dalian in northeast China this time.
Less than two weeks after agreeing with South Korea to denuclearize and seek a peace treaty, the North's leader was quoted by China's Xinhua News Agency as telling Xi that his promise to abandon nukes can be realized "as long as relevant parties abolish their hostile policies and remove security threats".
Xinhua added that Kim met Xi to "strengthen strategic communication and cooperation".
The North's authoritarian head of state is set for unprecedented talks with U.S. President Donald Trump by June to clarify the terms of Pyongyang's denuclearization, although a date has yet to be announced and concerns have arisen that it could be pushed back.
However, Seoul's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha dismissed such worries Tuesday, after Trump himself recently said he already knew the time and place of his meeting with Kim.
Kang told South Korean broadcaster KBS that it would be "diplomatically unthinkable" for there to be a delay.
