When images emerged of Chinese president Xi Jinping meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Beijing, the dynamic was similar to a father chastising an errant son.
CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, showed footage of Mr Xi, 64, lecturing Mr Kim, 34, with the latter taking notes in a demonstration of Confucian filiality. When Mr Kim spoke, Mr Xi gazed impassively, like a schoolmaster, at the portly dictator he was meeting for the first time after years of rising tension.
The two-day meeting, which began on Monday after Mr Kim’s train pulled into Beijing under heavy guard, was a coup for China, which portrayed it as the prodigal son returning to the fold.
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