Sino-NK

Wen Jiabao’s visit to the North Korean Embassy, previously reported on (via Chinese sources) here on SinoNK, has now been described by the Korean Central News Agency.  As it turns out, Wen brought the PRC Ministers for both Commerce and Culture with him, indicating once again the desire to keep both economic and cultural ties on the fast track.  While maintaing the principle of longer extracts to serve readers in South Korea, we are trying something slightly different by including a few annotations inline with the text, in brackets, as follows:

Senior Party and State Leaders of China Mourn Demise of Kim Jong Il
Pyongyang, December 21 (KCNA) — Wen Jiabao, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, Wednesday visited the DPRK embassy in Beijing to express condolences over the demise of leader Kim Jong Il.

Among the mourners were Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Li Keqiang, vice-premier of the State Council of the PRC [one of the most heavily-quoted CCP officials since KCNA began escalating its reporting from China after the Wen Jiabao visit of October 2009], He Guoqiang, secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and Zhou Yongkang [described here on SinoNK], secretary of the Central Commission of Politics and Law. All of them are members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the CPC.

[KCNA’s emphasis on the presence of members of the Standing Committee of the CCP should be noted: of the nine members of the committee, the epicenter of political power in China, every single one of them took the trip to the Embassy over the two days from December 20-21.]

Also among the mourners were State Councilor and Secretary-General of the State Council Ma Kai, State Councilor Dai Bingguo, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming, Minister of Culture Cai Wu, Mayor of the Beijing Municipal People’s Government Guo Jinlong, President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries Li Xiaolin and Wu Donghe, chairman of the China-DPRK Friendship Association [Wu is a career diplomat, an Africanist, and was Ambassador to the DPRK for a handful of years from 2001, and, as NK Leadership Watch reported, was received by Kim Jong Il and spent some time with Jang Song-taek in Pyongyang last summer].

Laid before the portrait of Kim Jong Il were wreaths in the name of Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Li Keqiang, He Guoqiang and Zhou Yongkang.

Also laid before the portrait were wreaths in the name of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Liaison Department of the C.C., the CPC, ministries of National Defence, Commerce and Culture, and the Beijing Municipal People’s Government, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the C.C, the Communist Youth League of China, the All-China Women’s Federation, the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the China-DPRK Friendship Association. [Note: How was there room for any other wreaths?]

Senior party and state leaders of China made three bows before the portrait of Kim Jong Il, expressing deep condolences over his demise. [Note: This detail, for obvious reasons, was not reported in the Chinese press.]

Wen Jiabao extended sincere condolences to the Korean people in bitter grief over his demise.

Kim Jong Il made an important contribution to the development of the Sino-DPRK friendly and cooperative relations for years as the great leader of the party and state of the DPRK and a close friend of the Chinese people, he said.

He expressed the will of the party and government of China to make sustained efforts to consolidate and develop the traditional relations of friendship between the two countries together with the party and government of the DPRK.

Li Keqiang expressed belief the Korean people would more dynamically push forward socialist construction under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK.

Zhou Yongkang said the Chinese people would always remember Kim Jong Il.

Dai Bingguo, hardly keeping back tears, expressed profound condolences. He said he never imagined the leader passed away all of a sudden.

All the members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the CPC visited the DPRK embassy in Beijing to mourn his demise in bitterest grief. This clearly represents the highest tribute of the collective leadership of China to Kim Jong Il and the invariable support of the party and people of China to the Workers’ Party of Korea and the Korean people. [The CCP will appreciate the notion of “collective leadership” highlighted in the North Korean language, as well as the notion of both “Party” and “people” as being somewhat distinct.]