North Korea unlikely to attend APEC summit in Shenzhen: South Korean foreign minister

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said in an interview ahead of his visit to China that North Korea was unlikely to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting will be held in Shenzhen, China, from next Wednesday to Thursday (18 to 19 November).

US President Donald J. Trump will visit China next week and meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the APEC leaders’ meeting. He also hopes to hold trilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Xi.

Frequent exchanges between China and North Korea recently have fuelled speculation that they may be seeking to arrange a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Donald J. Trump. Analysts, however, believe such a meeting is unlikely to take place before the APEC meeting.

Indications from senior US and South Korean officials suggest that Kim and Trump are unlikely to make contact on the sidelines of the APEC meeting, and that North Korea is also highly unlikely to take part in summit-related activities.

Yonhap on Friday (13 November) quoted South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, who was leaving for China that day, as saying that Kim and Trump were unlikely to meet in Shenzhen, Beijing or elsewhere.

Cho began a two-day visit to China that day, with talks and dinner in the afternoon with Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of China and foreign minister.

Asked about the agenda for the foreign ministers’ talks, Cho said he would hold wide-ranging discussions with Wang on South Korea-China relations, issues concerning North Korea and the possibility of a North Korea-US summit.

The report said Cho’s response could suggest that the two foreign ministers would coordinate on the possibility of a meeting between the South Korean and Chinese leaders on the sidelines of the APEC summit. They would also discuss the Korean peninsula and the possibility of North Korea-US contact during, before or after the summit.