Kim Jong Un's cunning strategy could lead the world down a dangerous path

Kim Jong Un's cunning strategy could lead the world down a dangerous path
By Jonathan Cristol

Posted at 1308 GMT (2108 HKT) March 28, 2018

Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping hold talks in Beijing 02:35
Editor's Note:Jonathan Cristol is a fellow at the World Policy Institute and Levermore Research Fellow at Adelphi University. You can follow him @jonathancristol. The views expressed in this commentary are his own.
(CNN) — On Tuesday, Korea-watchers were surprised by the news that North Korean President Kim Jong Un had made the 24-hour journey to Beijing on his armored train to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. While Kim attended a German-speaking school in Switzerland as a boy, this was his first trip abroad since becoming North Korea's leader in 2011.
The context of the visit is important: in just a few weeks, Kim will meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in for the first time. Soon after that, he will sit down with US President Donald Trump for the first ever meeting between sitting American and North Korean leaders.
The meeting comes not long after both Kim and Xi have successfully consolidated power at home -- Xi by having term limits abolished and effectively becoming president-for-life; Kim through the likely successful development of a nuclear deterrent.