A senior North Korean diplomat arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for talks with government officials, the first known visit since a missile test by Pyongyang that prompted China to sever coal imports from its isolated neighbour.
North Korea's vice foreign minister Ri Kil-Song will be in the country until Saturday to discuss "issues of mutual interest", foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters during a regular press briefing.
Ri will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other officials, Geng said, calling it a "normal diplomatic exchange."
It is the first known high-level North Korean visit in months and comes amid rising tensions between the two countries over Pyongyang's February 12 missile launch and the subsequent killing of the brother of the North's supreme leader Kim Jong-Un.
South Korea has blamed Kim's government for the killing in Malaysia, which involved the banned VX nerve agent.
Shortly after the murder, China announced it would halt all imports of North Korean coal for the rest of this year, a decision it said was in line with UN sanctions placed on North Korea late last year over its missile and nuclear programmes.
China is the North's sole major ally and by far its largest trading partner.
But in an unusual public attack following the coal decision, North Korean state media last week denounced Beijing for "dancing to the tune of the US."
North Korea blasted off a series of missiles and conducted two nuclear tests in 2016 in its quest to develop a weapons system capable of hitting the US mainland.
The Security Council has imposed six sets of sanctions since Pyongyang first tested an atomic device in 2006.
US President Donald Trump has called on China to do more to rein in North Korea, saying it could easily bring its errant neighbour to heel.
But Beijing denies that, and Geng on Friday urged Washington and Pyongyang to "shoulder their due responsibilities and play their due roles and work together with China to maintain stability" and denuclearise the peninsula.
N. Korea lashes ally China over coal import ban
Seoul (AFP) Feb 24, 2017 –
North Korea denounced its chief ally and diplomatic protector China for "dancing to the tune of the US" after it banned coal imports in apparent punishment for a missile launch.
Beijing and Pyongyang have a relationship forged in the blood of the Korean War, but ties have begun to fray in recent years, with China increasingly exasperated by its wayward neighbour's nuclear antics.
Last week it announced the suspension of all coal imports from the North — a crucial foreign currency earner for Pyongyang — for the rest of the year.
It came days after a missile launch personally overseen by leader Kim Jong-Un in what was seen as Pyongyang's first show of force against new US President Donald Trump.
A bylined essay carried by the North's official Korea Central News Agency slammed Beijing's move.
It did not identify China by name, referring instead to "a neighbouring country".
"This country, styling itself a big power, is dancing to the tune of the US," it said.
"It has unhesitatingly taken inhumane steps such as totally blocking foreign trade related to the improvement of people's living standard," it added.
"Righteous voices" had condemned the move, it said, while "the hostile forces are shouting 'bravo' over this".
The format was unusual for KCNA, which tends not to carry editorials or commentaries of its own, preferring to reproduce those of Rodong Sinmun, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Workers' Party.
The tone was also more akin to Pyongyang's denunciations of the US.
It was "utterly childish" to think that the North would stop its nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile programmes if a few pennies of money were cut off, said the KCNA essay.
Its scientists and technicians were "working hard in do-or-die spirit", it added.
The latest launch — the first since Trump took office — showed some progress in Pyongyang's missile technology, Seoul's military said.
The North — barred under UN resolutions from any use of ballistic missile technology — staged two atomic tests and many missile tests last year in a quest to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the US mainland.
Trump has described the North as a "big, big problem" and vowed to deal with the issue "very strongly".
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