North Korean special envoy's China visit arouses worldwide attention

A special envoy of Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), left Pyongyan Wednesday for a visit to China, the country's official KCNA news agency reported.

The envoy is Choe Ryong Hae, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army (KPA) and member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee.

The KCNA said, he was accompanied by KPA Col. Gen. Ri Yong Gil, Vice Department Director of the WPK Central Committee Kim Song Nam, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hyong Jun and KPA Lieut. Gen. Kim Su Gil.

The report did not give details of the visit or its itinerary.

International media shares the view that the trip is DPRK's effort to repair its badly damaged ties with China, which is regarded as DPRK's last remaining ideological ally and its single provider of trade and aid.

The relations between the two countries are strained, the New York Times reported. China voted for sanctions at the UN after the nuclear test in February and the state-run Bank of China suspended all transactions with North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank, a financier of the country's nuclear program.

"Choe was expected to explain North Korea's thinking," Cai Jian, deputy director of Fudan University's Centre for Korean Studies said, according to the South China Morning Post. "He was expected to seek China's understanding before the two crucial summits, at which the North Korea issue will be dominate."

China's President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama will hold their summit in California and South Korean President Park Geun-hye is expected to also make an official visit to Beijing in June.

Reuters reported that Beijing was likely to once again urge Pyongyang to return to the "Six Party Talks" process, which aimed at denuclearization. While DPRK would likely to raise issues including its desire to be recognized as a nuclear state, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The DPRK envoy was probably looking for an invitation for its leader, Kim to visit China, international media reported. But the goal was unlikely to be achieved, said the New York Times, in light of the young leader's "erratic behavior", including firing six short-range missiles since Saturday.

It has been the first time that a DPRK envoy visits China since Kim took power after his father Kim Jong Il died in December 2011.