(3rd LD) High-ranking Chinese official pays tribute to Kim Jong-il
2014/12/17 18:42
BEIJING, Dec. 17 (Yonhap) -- A top Chinese official paid his respects to the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during a memorial held by the North Korean Embassy here on Wednesday, China's foreign ministry said, in what appears to be a gesture that Beijing might try to warm political ties with Pyongyang.
The visit by Liu Yunshan, who ranks fifth in China's ruling Communist Party hierarchy, to the memorial in Beijing came as North Korea marked the end of a three-year mourning period for Kim, setting the stage for his son and current leader Kim Jong-un to further consolidate his own dynastic rule.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters that Liu, a member of China's top decision-making Politburo Standing Committee, "attended the commemorative activity held by the DPRK (North Korea) embassy in China."
"We remember him on this day and we never forget the contributions he made in improving bilateral ties," he said, referring to Kim Jong-il.
"China will work with the DPRK side to develop our traditional friendship and to jointly safeguard the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula," Qin said.
Political ties between China and its only treaty ally, North Korea, remain strained, particularly after the North's third nuclear test in February 2013. However, few analysts believe that China will exert enough pressure on the North to give up its nuclear weapons because it could lead to the collapse of the North's regime and hurt China's national interests.
Also on Wednesday, scores of stone-faced North Koreans, dressed in black suits and carrying chrysanthemums, were seen entering the embassy building. The North Korean national flag flew at half-staff during the memorial at the embassy in central Beijing.
After the memorial, a North Korean woman in her 30s left the embassy and said that, "One minute of silence was held toward the sky of Pyongyang" in a tribute to the late Kim.
Security was tight around the North Korean Embassy with Chinese police vehicles and plain-clothed Chinese police officers patrolling the embassy grounds.
In Confucian tradition, Wednesday's third anniversary of Kim's death was significant for the current leader, Kim Jong-un, because it meant the end of the three-year period of official mourning for his father, paving the way for the current leader to pursue new policies, analysts said.
Earlier this week, North Korea threatened to take "the toughest counteraction" against the United States, accusing Washington of seeking to topple the reclusive regime through allegations of having a dismal human rights record.
The North Korean warning came as the U.N. Security Council is due to hold a meeting next week in an attempt to put the issue of the North's human rights on the council's agenda. A groundbreaking U.N. report earlier this year graphically documented human rights abuses in North Korea.
North Korea has vehemently denounced the resolution, calling it a U.S.-led plot to topple its regime, and openly threatened to conduct a new nuclear test.
The New York-based rights group, Human Rights Watch, said that Kim Jong-il "should be remembered for presiding over systematic crimes against humanity against his own people, including a catastrophic famine."
"Kim Jong-il ruled by severely punishing dissent, and using the fear instilled by his brutality to keep the population silenced, even as they were starving to death," Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director at Human Rights Watch, said in an emailed statement.
"Sadly, Kim Jong-un, North Korea's new supreme leader and son of Kim Jong-il, is closely following in his father's footsteps," Robertson said.
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