Kim Jung Un could make a summit diplomacy debut in Indonesia

An official from South Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry revealed on Sunday that Indonesia expressed its willingness to invite both leaders from South and North Koreas to Asia-Africa Summit Meeting celebrating 60th year of Bandung Conference, which is slated to be held on April 22 and 23, and to the commemorative event the following day. “We don’t know yet whether the North has shown its willingness to attend. For our side, we will take relevant matters into consideration before making the decision,” the official said.

Given that the Bandung Conference sparked the Non-Aligned Movement in 1955, Kim Jong Un could appear in Indonesia in April before he takes part in the 70th Anniversary for the victory of the Second World War in Russia on May 9. As he has been playing “Follow Kim Il Sung” in order to safely assume the power and maintain an internal control, it is possible for the First Secretary of the Workers’ Party to follow suit of his farther who attended the meeting held in Indonesia in 1965 with Kim Il Sung, Kim Jung Un’s grandfather. North Korea needs to make a continuous effort in retaining good relations with East Asian and African countries, North Korea’s long-time allies, to avoid international isolation.

In 2005, Hu Jintao, then general secretary of the Communist Party of China, took part in the 50th Bandung Conference. If Chinese incumbent General Secretary Xi Jinping attends the meeting this time, a North Korea-China summit meeting will naturally take place before Kim’s visit to Russia. Attendees at the 2005 conference included the then Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, then prime minister of the South, and Kim Yong Nam, then president of the Presidium of the North`s Supreme People`s Assembly.