Why Did Kim Jong Un Go To China?

"Peace" is not a notion that we come across frequently these days. And when North Korea's belligerent leader Kim Jong Un and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, secretly boarded Kim's armored train from Pyongyang and trailed across the border to China for diplomatic dialogue, it was a really a welcome surprise for the world.  

Kim Jong Un met one of the most powerful leaders of the world: Chinese President Xi Jinping, who just cast himself on the road to becoming "leader forever" by having presidential term limits removed.

Experts on and of the region have differing views, as "pessimists" and "optimists". But they all concur that the meeting was a landmark occasion. In a very rare outing, reclusive Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, "were treated to full pomp and ceremony, including an honor guard, a banquet, and talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People", as the author of this New Yorker article Evan Osnos describes it.

Diplomatic gossip aside, as Osnos goes on to underline:

To Korea specialists in Seoul, Washington, and elsewhere, the motives behind Kim’s turn are opaque but important to divine. The optimistic view holds that, now that Kim has achieved a nuclear arsenal that puts the world on edge, he can turn his attention to economic growth, the other branch of his “byungjin” (or “parallel development”) policy.

How about the pessimists' view, then?

Pessimists call that reading naïve, arguing that Kim’s overtures are primarily intended to lure South Korea into shedding its reliance on American security and maneuvering the United States off the Korean Peninsula.

One way or the other, we are at the verge of global crossroads: from the U.S. President Donald Trump to the Russia's President Vladimir Putin, and from North Korea's Kim Jong Un to China's Xi Jinping, "tough guy" leaders are getting more imposing. Regardless of their motives, "peace" is the word to embrace in a global sense.