Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Pyongyang on Monday for his first state visit to North Korea in seven years, where he was greeted by Kim Jong Un with a red-carpet welcome, a 21-gun salute and a joint pledge to deepen strategic cooperation.
Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan were met at the airport by Kim and his wife Ri Sol-ju, exchanging handshakes before the two leaders proceeded to a formal welcome ceremony at Kim Il-sung Square, the capital's main venue for parades and political events. A military honor guard, a cavalry formation and a military band playing both countries' national anthems lined the square, while giant portraits of Xi and Kim were displayed in the centre, according to multiple reports.
Thousands of people filled the square and surrounding streets, waving flags and carrying bouquets. Banners in Chinese and Korean reading "eternal friendship between North Korea and China" were displayed across the venue, and Xi was escorted from the airport by a nine-column motorcade. After the ceremony, Xi and Peng Liyuan were taken to the Kumsusan state guest house to stay overnight.
At the summit, CCTV reported that Xi expressed China's willingness to expand cooperation with North Korea in trade, agriculture, construction and technology, and said the two countries should use the reopening of flight and train services as a chance to expand people-to-people exchanges. Xi also said the two countries should strengthen strategic cooperation and firmly safeguard their respective sovereignty and security interests, according to Chinese state media.
Pageantry and symbolism in Pyongyang
Kim told Xi, through CCTV, that consolidating a new era of friendship between the two countries is the "unchanging strategic choice" of North Korea, and said Xi's visit "clearly demonstrates how unbreakable" the North Korea-China relationship is. The visit coincides with the 65th anniversary of the China-North Korea mutual defense treaty, underscoring the symbolic weight both sides placed on the occasion.
The visit comes against a complicated diplomatic backdrop. Earlier this year, China and North Korea resumed direct flights and passenger trains that had been stalled since the pandemic, and two-way trade last year recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Xi and Kim last met in Beijing in September, viewing a military parade alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and other foreign leaders, and Xi held back-to-back summits with U.S. President Donald Trump and Putin in Beijing last month.
Denuclearisation off the agenda
Denuclearisation was notably absent from the public readouts. After last month's Trump-Xi summit, the White House said the two leaders confirmed their shared goal to denuclearise North Korea, while China said the leaders only discussed the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said "Implementing U.N. Security Council resolutions and enforcing sanctions do not appear to be priorities for China."
Kim's domestic posture has hardened since his high-stakes diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. He has focused on enlarging and modernising his nuclear arsenal, observed sea trials of a new naval destroyer and called for speeding up efforts to build a nuclear-armed navy. Last week, he unveiled a new plant to produce nuclear ingredients and vowed to bolster the country's nuclear forces "at an exponential rate." On Sunday, Kim Yo Jong dismissed the U.S. push for denuclearisation as an "anachronistic dream."
Broader regional calculations
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Monday that North Korea is producing enough nuclear ingredients annually for about 10-20 bombs and is close to perfecting intercontinental ballistic missile technology. Lee said the world must first focus on convincing North Korea to freeze its nuclear materials production and ICBM program as a short-term goal, a position that has not been publicly echoed by Beijing or Pyongyang.
Kwak Gil Sup, head of the One Korea Center, said Xi will try to demonstrate China's "sway over the Korean Peninsula" and a leadership role in Northeast Asia. North Korea has separately prioritised cooperation with Russia, supplying troops and weapons to support Russia's war against Ukraine and receiving economic and military assistance in return. Xi is expected to meet Trump again on a planned U.S. visit in September.
At the airport ceremony, the guard of honour shouted in Korean, "wishing Comrade Xi Jinping good health," according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. The pageantry signalled the importance both governments attached to the visit, even as analysts noted the lack of progress on arms control and the prospect of further alignment between Beijing, Pyongyang and Moscow on the global stage.