North Korean leader sends envoy to China for talks

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has sent a high-level envoy to China in a bid to boost ties with the country’s most important ally.

The Wednesday trip by Vice Marshal Choe Ryong Hae, a senior Workers’ Party official and the military’s top political officer, to Beijing came amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Chinese media say Choe met Wang Jiarui, a top foreign affairs official during his first day of visit.

This is the first visit by a top North Korean official to China, which is North Korea’s biggest trading partner and closest ally, this year.

China, the United States and other nations are trying to persuade North Korea to return to stalled multilateral negotiations on ending Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.

The Korean Peninsula also has been locked in a cycle of escalating military rhetoric since March 1, when the US and South Korea began two months of joint military maneuvers, which included nuclear-capable B-52 and B-2 bombers.

The move prompted the North Korean government to step up its war rhetoric and authorize its army to launch “preemptive nuclear strikes” on the United States.

Pyongyang has also said its military should be prepared to attack “all US military bases in the Asia-Pacific region, including the US mainland, Hawaii, and Guam.”