Kim Jong Un Meets Xi Jinping to Revive Ties

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time in six years and eight months, seeking to restore ties between Pyongyang and Beijing. After forging a strategic alliance with Russia through summit diplomacy last year, Kim has now turned to reviving his relatively distant relationship with China. Analysts say that as tensions between Washington and Beijing intensify, North Korea is trying to exploit the divide to elevate its global profile and assert its status as a nuclear power.

Kim and Xi met for talks at Diaoyutai after attending a military parade earlier in the day. It was their first meeting since January 2019, when Kim visited Beijing to meet Xi one month before the second U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The summit is believed to have addressed ways to revive the long-dormant high-level exchanges between the two countries. The two sides likely agreed to move past the disruptions caused by COVID-19 and more than six years of strained ties, and to put summit diplomacy back on track. “Summits have long been the most important element shaping North Korea-China relations, and Xi has consistently emphasized the need to strengthen high-level exchanges,” said Park Byeong-kwang, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy.

In addition to high-level exchanges, the two leaders are believed to have discussed strengthening strategic communication. This would reaffirm the tradition, dating back to the Cold War, of prior consultations between Pyongyang and Beijing before major diplomatic events such as U.S.-North Korea or inter-Korean summits, or major developments like nuclear tests.

Kim’s visit to China and his summit with Xi also reflected his aim of reinforcing North Korea’s claim to nuclear-armed status. By presenting the image of an equal meeting with Xi, Kim sought to soften China’s long-standing principle of North Korean denuclearization and to signal, albeit indirectly, a more pragmatic stance such as a nuclear freeze or even recognition of Pyongyang as a nuclear state.

With the backing of China and Russia, both permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, North Korea aims to project the image of a “normal state” able to hold equal talks with world leaders while keeping its nuclear arsenal, thereby pushing beyond the U.S.-led sanctions regime. There is also speculation that Kim may use this as leverage in any future encounter with U.S. President Donald Trump.


Na-Ri Shin journari@donga.com