[LINK] "Kim Jong Un Sends Special Envoy to Russia Amid Cooler China Ties"

[rfmcdonald]

Bloomberg's Sam Kim notes North Korea's latest approach to Russia, something that has occurred after ties with China have cooled down.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a special envoy to Russia as he tries to boost ties with President Vladimir Putin’s government amid cooler relations with traditional ally China.

Choe Ryong Hae, a secretary of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party, left Pyongyang for Russia on a special airplane yesterday, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency reported. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said last week Choe would visit Moscow as part of trip to Russia that will last until Nov. 24.

Choe is a member of Kim’s inner circle and his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last year helped ease months of tension after North Korea’s third nuclear test in February. He also visited South Korea last month as part of a high-level delegation seeking to repair ties. It was unclear whether Choe will meet Putin.

“North Korea will place its top priority on arranging a high-level summit with Russia through this visit,” Cheong Seong Chang, a senior analyst at the Sejong Institute near Seoul, said by e-mail. “It could ease its sense of diplomatic isolation and increase its influence over the Korean peninsula through a summit with Russia.”

Kim hasn’t met a foreign head of state since taking power in December 2011. Xi met South Korean President Park Geun Hye in July without first traveling to Pyongyang, the first time a Chinese leader had bypassed the North Korean capital before a meeting with the South. At the summit, the two leaders said they won’t tolerate the development of nuclear arms on the Korean peninsula.