Experts said that public and media should not over-interpret the implications behind a high-level DPRK official's visit to China without meeting China's President Xi Jinping during the V-day parade. [Special coverage]
Choe Ryong-hae, a member of the Politburo Presidium and secretary of the Central Committee of DPRK's ruling Workers' Party, returned to Pyongyang Thursday night after attending the military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
Choe did not get a chance to meet with Xi, which signifies the fruitless result of his visit to China, according to a WeChat account managed by the Xinhua News Agency.
It showed China's consistent and clear stance on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Cui Zhi-
ying, a professor specializing in South Korea at Tongji University in Shanghai, told the Global Times. "The Sino-DPRK tie is in a 'cold' period mainly due to the nuclear issue."
Xi needs to prioritize the meetings with other government leaders and presently China has no "pressing issues" with DPRK, said Li Dunqiu, a professor of Korean studies with Zhejiang University.
Choe was assigned mainly because he had been to China and met with President Xi in 2013, Li said.
During the tense face-off between the South and DPRK in August, DPRK's foreign ministry said it rejected the idea of restraint, an apparent rebuff to China's call.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye attended the parade under pressure from the U.S. and Japan, attracting the eyes of media, while China and DPRK has maintained steady and calm relations, said Li.
He added that disagreements between China and DPRK are natural and that there is no need to over-interpret one event as a sign of the deterioration of a long-standing friendship.
During a meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Beijing before the parade, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a resumption of multilateral nuclear talks with DPRK on Wednesday and said he opposed any move to worsen tension. Park told Xi she appreciated China's help in defusing tension with DPRK.
