On October 28, 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao made an official visit to Pyongyang to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. This was Hu’s first visit to North Korea since assuming China’s top leadership position in 2003. The visit reportedly was originally scheduled to have taken place in April 2005. Beijing is said to have postponed the visit due to lack of progress in obtaining Pyongyang’s commitment to the Six-Party Talks on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program. (Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States are the other participants in the negotiation.)

At the Pyongyang summit, Kim showered Hu with lavish ceremonies, and the two leaders extolled their countries’ decades-old bilateral relationship. However, on the issue of North Korea’s nuclear program, official Chinese media coverage revealed differences between Hu and Kim concerning implementation of the nuclear goals set out in the September 19, 2005, Joint Statement, issued at the close of the fourth round of the Six-Party Talks. In the September 19 Joint Statement, among other points, the participants called for the phased implementation of North Korea’s commitment to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs. Apparently the topic remained a point of contention between the two leaders, the People’s Daily characterizing the Hu-Kim talks as “candid,” in addition to being “warm and friendly.” [1]

In his comments at the summit, Hu emphasized nuclear issues, reiterating China’s support for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and praising the significant achievements during the fourth round of talks. He emphasized the importance of maintaining both peninsular and regional peace and stability and urged that the targets set out in the September Joint Statement be duly implemented. Hu also looked to the future, expressing the hope that through the joint efforts of all the parties to the talks, new progress could be made at the fifth round of negotiations, originally scheduled for November. [1]

However, Kim Jong-il, in his response, while praising Chinese efforts in maintaining peninsular peace and stability, failed to mention Beijing’s equally emphasized goal—denuclearization. Kim merely pledged to attend the next round of talks, without making any reference to implementing the goals outlined in the September Joint Statement.

These differences on the nuclear issue raise questions about the degree of influence China exerts over North Korea on this question. Indeed, President Hu failed to mention the nuclear issue in his speech at the state banquet given by Kim, and Wang Jiarui, director of the liaison department of the Chinese Communist Party, could not provide a precise assessment as to what had been achieved on the nuclear issue during the Hu visit. [2]

Assessing the summit results, Chinese media commentators expressed the view that Beijing has limited influence over Pyongyang and that significant challenges lie ahead in implementing the September statement. They noted that, far from controlling North Korean behavior, over the past few years Beijing has had to coax Pyongyang into participating in the Six-Party Talks and has had to play the role of mediator between North Korea and the United States. [3]