Update | North Korean envoy tells Xi Jinping nation will not scrap its nuclear programme
China’s leaders have been angered by a series of nuclear weapons tests by its neighbour and long-standing ally
A North Korean envoy has told China’s President Xi Jinping that his nation will continue to develop its nuclear programme.
Ri Su-yong, a vice chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, told Xi on Wednesday in Beijing that Pyongyang’s policy of developing its nuclear programme and economy together remained unchanged, the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.
China has been angered by North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and relations between the traditional allies have been rocky for several years.
Despite Ri’s reference to North Korea’s dual-track policy, the meeting at the Great Hall of the People was held in “a friendly atmosphere”, according to the North Korean report.
Chinese official media reports about the meeting on Wednesday, which marked Xi’s first talks in three years with a senior North Korean officials in Beijing, did not touch on Ri’s remarks about the country’s dual-track policy on nuclear weapons and its economy.
The state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as telling the envoy that China would work with North Korea to safeguard, consolidate and develop the two nation’s friendship.