North Korean leader Kim Jong Un left Pyongyang by train on Monday to attend a military parade in China, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, marking the first time the leader has attended such a major multilateral diplomatic event.
The reclusive leader, who rarely leaves North Korea, is expected to arrive in Beijing on Tuesday, Yonhap reported.
At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un is scheduled to attend a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday to mark Japan’s formal surrender in World War II, state media reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who enjoys close ties with Kim, will also attend the parade.
South Korean presidential security adviser Wi Sun-jak said last week that Kim could hold separate talks with Xi and Putin on the sidelines of the event.
If a trilateral summit of those countries takes place, it could deepen the rift with the country bloc made up of South Korea, Japan and the United States, he said during a radio interview.
Experts say Kim Jong Un, after the latest summit between South Korea and the United States last Monday, appears to want to further strengthen relations with Beijing.
“Unlike his grandfather Kim Il Sung, who attended many diplomatic events, Kim Jong Un and his father Kim Jong II did not appear at any event attended by many leaders,” points out Jon Sin Chan, deputy director of the Sejong Institute, a Seoul-based think tank.
South Korea will send Parliament Speaker Wu Won Shik to the event in China, the Unification Ministry announced.
The ministry said it was uncertain whether Wu would be able to hold bilateral talks with Kim on the sidelines of the event.
The defeat of Imperial Japan in 1945 and the rise of the Communists to power in China in 1949 were key events that sparked the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.
The war resulted in the division of the peninsula into a communist north supported by China and a capitalist south supported by the United States.
