Key Takeaways from Xi Jinping’s Pivotal Visit to North Korea

Chinese President Xi Jinping has embarked on a visit to North Korea, engaging in a series of discussions with the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

The leaders have reportedly reached a “significant consensus” concerning the evolution of bilateral relations in what they describe as a “new era,” according to statements from Xi.

What happened?

Xi made his arrival in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, on Monday, marking his first official trip to the reclusive nation since 2019.

Accompanied by his wife and several high-ranking officials, Xi is on a two-day mission, which he asserts aims to elevate the enduring partnership between the two nations to “new heights.”

The visit follows Xi’s hosting of a string of world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, in Beijing.

State media images showed Xi and Kim beaming as they shook hands, with the Chinese leader receiving a lavish welcome ceremony featuring a red-carpet military salute and cheering crowds.

What were the outcomes?

Xi said he had reached “an important consensus with Kim on developing China-DPRK relations in the new era”, China’s Xinhua news agency reported, using North Korea’s official acronym.

The leaders agreed to put the two nations’ friendly relations “on a more solid basis”, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

Chinese state media reported Xi told Kim their countries “should strengthen exchanges in diplomacy, law enforcement [and] the military” and expand economic cooperation.

He also called for expanded economic cooperation, citing the recent reopening of border crossings and transport links.

China has long been North Korea’s largest economic partner, with US and South Korean estimates indicating that China has accounted for almost all of North Korea’s annual foreign trade in recent years.

In March, flights and passenger train services between the two nations resumed after a six-year hiatus due to pandemic-era border closures and their aftermath.

What about North Korea’s nukes?

Official readouts and state media reports have not said whether Xi and Kim discussed North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, for which the nation languishes under international sanctions.

Last month, the White House announced that the Chinese leader and Trump had “confirmed their shared goal to denuclearise North Korea” during their summit in Beijing.

Kim has repeatedly vowed never to give up his nuclear arsenal, and his sister said before Xi’s visit that the program was North Korea’s “line of no retreat”.

The absence of denuclearisation from official statements means the summit effectively “appeared to have been a forum where China granted Pyongyang’s rights to nuclear weapons”, Lee Ho-ryung of the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses told AFP.

In return, it appears Kim supported China’s “One-China principle regarding Taiwan”, she added, referring to the self-ruled island China claims as its own.

“Our party and government will fully support the policy and stand of the Chinese party and government to defend the core interests on the ‘one-China’ principle,” KCNA said.

How did Kim emerge from the talks?

Analysts noted that the summit took place as Kim enjoys an enhanced global status — a result of backing Russia with troops and munitions in its war with Ukraine.

Kim is “no longer just a recipient of aid, but a provider of critical military assets”, having “successfully leveraged his nuisance value into strategic relevance”, Seong-Hyon Lee, a visiting scholar at the Harvard University Asia Centre, told AFP.

Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said the meeting reflected the convergence of “North Korea’s desire to cement its status as an indispensable strategic actor through its nuclear arsenal” and “China’s expanding ambitions to shape the Northeast Asian order”.

Besides Xi and Putin, Kim’s meetings with leaders from Belarus, Laos and Vietnam since last year have proven that North Korea is no longer such a diplomatic pariah, said Minseon Ku, a diplomacy professor at DePaul University.

China and North Korea have a military alliance centred on a 1961 treaty obliging each side to come to the other’s aid in the event of an armed attack.

North Korea is the only country with which China has such a military agreement. Despite North Korea also signing a mutual defence treaty with Russia in 2024.

China appears to aim “to offer economic incentives while monitoring North Korea to ensure it does not act against Beijing’s interests in the diplomatic and military spheres”, Hong said.

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