Kim Jong Un leaves China after parade visit that could be a 'leap forward' in ties Jennifer JettSeptember 5, 2025 at 5:30 AM 0 Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after the military parade in Beijing on Wednesday.
- - Kim Jong Un leaves China after parade visit that could be a 'leap forward' in ties
Jennifer JettSeptember 5, 2025 at 5:30 AM
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Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after the military parade in Beijing on Wednesday. (Jade Gao / AFP via Getty Images)
HONG KONG — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Chinese President Xi Jinping that their countries' "friendship will never change" even as the international situation shifts around them, North Korean state media reported Friday.
The two leaders met for the first time in six years on Thursday in Beijing, where Kim had traveled to attend a massive military parade in a rare departure from his isolated, nuclear-armed state.
The "Victory Day" parade, which commemorated the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, was the first time Xi, Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin had been seen in public together.
Their joint appearance symbolized their countries' growing challenge to U.S. power on the global stage, as Putin brushes off President Donald Trump's push to end his invasion of Ukraine and North Korea dismisses Trump's interest in reviving denuclearization talks.
But relations between North Korea and China, its neighbor and biggest trading partner, have been strained by Kim's support for Putin's war against Ukraine.
South Korea's intelligence agency said this week that an estimated 2,000 of the approximately 15,000 North Korean troops sent to fight alongside Russia had been killed, and Putin thanked Kim for his country's sacrifice at their own bilateral summit on Wednesday.
Experts say Kim, who is in dire need of economic assistance, may be trying to mend ties with Beijing as a hedge against the possible end of the war in Ukraine and the leverage he has gained with Russia.
The Xi-Kim summit "suggests more than a simple restoration of ties," said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at South Korea's Kyungnam University. "It points to the possibility of a new leap forward."
It was an opportunity for North Korea to reaffirm China's backing amid international sanctions and isolation, and an opportunity for China to show its intention to maintain influence over the Korean Peninsula through Pyongyang, he said.
Chinese state media also confirmed the Xi-Kim summit.
Like Kim, Xi said China and North Korea's commitment to developing bilateral relations "will not change regardless of how the international situation evolves," according to a readout published by Xinhua, China's state-run news agency.
Xi told Kim that China and North Korea, which are both communist-run states, are "good neighbors, good friends and good comrades who share a common destiny."
Kim, who had not been to China since 2019, said the military parade and related events were "grand and magnificent" and "underscored China's significant international status and influence," according to China's state-run broadcaster CCTV.
"No matter how the world changes, this friendship will never change," he said.
Kim said North Korea would "invariably support and encourage" the Chinese government's efforts to defend its "sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests," according to North Korean news agency KCNA.
During their meeting at the Great Hall of the People, the two leaders also discussed strengthening strategic cooperation, defending common interests in international and regional affairs and conducting more high-level visits, Chinese and North Korean state media reported. The meeting was followed by a small-group tea meeting and banquet.
KCNA confirmed that Kim had left Beijing on his private train Thursday night, saying he was seen off at Beijing Railway Station by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other senior Chinese officials.
Kim arriving by train in Beijing on Tuesday. (Pang Xinglei / AP)
The agency said the North Korean leader's visit to China was "a historic occasion which further strengthened the political trust and strategic cooperation" between the two countries and "showed the invariability and invincibility" of their relations, which have overcome "all sorts of trials and challenges."
By stressing the unchanging nature of their relationship despite international shifts, "the summit also gave North Korea grounds to justify holding on to its nuclear weapons," Lim said. "With China voicing support for Pyongyang's own 'core interests,' Beijing can be seen as tacitly acknowledging North Korea's status as a nuclear-armed state."
But China, which prefers stability on the Korean Peninsula, could still play a positive role as mediator, he said.
"China may well use economic cooperation as leverage to press Pyongyang to ease tensions in the interest of regional stability," Lim said.
While Xi and Kim did not mention a possible U.S.-North Korea summit, their references to strengthening cooperation, high-level exchanges and strategic communication "suggest that close consultations between Beijing and Pyongyang are to be expected before any such summit is pursued," said Yang Moo-jin, distinguished chair professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, South Korea.
He said a U.S.-North Korea summit was unlikely in the near future.
North Korea will first try to gain leverage by securing "a support base from countries that are recognized nuclear powers, with China as its backing," Yang said.
Jennifer Jett reported from Hong Kong and Stella Kim from Los Angeles.
Source: "AOL AOL General News"
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