Global Geopolitical Series: China sends special envoy for Korean peninsula to Seoul

Earlier this week, China announced that it would send Kong Xuanyou, vice foreign minister as China’s special representative to Seoul to attend to the situation in the Korean Peninsula. The development came after North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-Un expressed willingness to improve relations with the South in order to ensure peace and stability in the region and after North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un reopened the Panmunjom hotline with South Korea on January 3. North had closed the hotline to protest south’s decision to close down a jointly operated industrial complex. According to China’s foreign ministry, the special envoy will hold consultation and exchange views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Kong, 59, is an ethnic Korean from the Heilongjiang province in northeastern China. He has held senior positions at the Chinese embassy in Japan and was China’s ambassador to Vietnam from 2011 to 2014. In August 2017, he was appointed as the special representative on Korean peninsula affairs, replacing Wu Dawei, who retired after more than 13 years overseeing the North Korea issue.

According to the foreign ministry, the envoy had traveled to China from January 5th to 6th just before South Korea is scheduled to hold its first high-level talks with the North in at least two years.