The visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to North Korea on Monday was his first visit in 2026 and the two leaders pledged their relationship as an ‘invincible friendship’.
The visit follows a series of high-level meetings and summits he hosted in Beijing with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin recently.
Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, greeted Xi at the airport in a grand and theatrical ceremony with military guards, children carrying flowers and banners hailing the “unbreakable friendship” between the two nations.
The video from the state media showed, Xi and Kim shaking hands warmly after Xi’s arrival and his visit to North Korea was his first since last year.
Despite years of UN restrictions on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme, China still plays a key role in North Korea’s economy and politics, supplying the regime with vital economic and diplomatic support.
The visit comes as nuclear talks with the United States are still deadlocked, amid rising tensions in the region.
Kim Jong Un’s sister vowed a nuclear programme to be a ‘line of no retreat’ as North Korean officials repeated their adamant stance on the subject.
In the meantime South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called for further efforts to denuclearise the North, noting that Pyongyang is continuing to make nuclear materials.
China might now care more about stability in the region, rather than North Korea’s denuclearisation, analysts say, effectively giving up on the idea of a denuclearised Korean peninsula while managing to keep the North as a buffer against the United States’ influence in Asia.
Others believe that China is seeking to counteract Russia’s rising weight in Pyongyang as it has collaborated with the North during the Ukraine conflict.
The two countries’ relations are “invincible,” Xi said according to the state-run media, indicating China’s desire to strengthen its ties with its traditional ally, especially as geopolitical tensions in the region are changing.
Also read: US President Trump invites Xi Jinping to visit White House in September
