North Korea's Kim asked China's Xi to help lift sanctions


TOKYO: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has appealed to China’s Xi Jinping to help end sanctions against Pyongyang following his landmark summit with US President Donald Trump, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday, citing multiple unnamed sources in the two countries.

Kim made the request during his third meeting with Xi in Beijing last month, and the Chinese president promised to do his “utmost” to satisfy it, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.

“We are feeling great pain due to economic sanctions. Now that we have concluded the US-North Korea summit in success, I want (China) to work toward early lifting of the sanctions,” Kim reportedly told Xi, according to the newspaper.

China says to play positive role as it seeks North Korea resolution

In recent months the Cold War-era allies have sought to repair ties strained by Pyongyang’s nuclear tests and Beijing’s support of subsequent UN sanctions.

Kim chose Beijing — his main economic patron and diplomatic protector — for his first official foreign trip in March and met Xi again in May in the northeastern port city of Dalian.

Kim asked Xi to help ease the sanctions that have crippled North Korea’s economy, and urged China to back Pyongyang in its denuclearisation talks with Washington, the report said.

Xi in turn told Kim he “actively supports North Korea’s reform and opening-up and will proactively cooperate with issues associated with the efforts”, according to the Yomiuri.

North Korea says ‘completely’ dismantled nuclear test site

Kim’s third official visit to China was seen as a move to reassure Beijing that Pyongyang would not neglect its interests after the historic summit with Trump in Singapore.

China and the US both hope to see the Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons.

North Korea tells US it is prepared to discuss denuclearisation

But Beijing is concerned Washington and Pyongyang might move closer at its expense, a possibility that China sees as threatening to its economic and security interests in the region

Wang will be the first Chinese foreign minister to visit North Korea since 2007

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    Original news : https://tribune.com.pk/story/1747243/3-n-koreas-kim-asked-chinas-xi-help-lift-sanctions-report/