Xi and Kim express hopes for greater ties between China and North Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko exchange gifts during a meeting in Pyongyang.

SEOUL, South Korea -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un underscored their commitment to deepen co-operation in a closely watched summit on Monday, as Xi made a rare visit to Pyongyang in a likely attempt to reassert Beijing’s unique influence over its socialist neighbour.

It’s Xi’s first visit to North Korea in seven years. Earlier Monday, he was given a lavish welcome upon arrival at Pyongyang’s international airport. He and his wife Peng Liyuan were greeted by Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju, who broadly smiled and clapped.

Xi later arrived at Pyongyang’s main square, where a military honor guard and thousands of people, including children carrying balloons and hopping, staged a welcoming ceremony. Buildings surrounding the plaza were draped in the two countries’ flags, giant portraits of Kim and Xi and red-and-yellow banners welcoming the Chinese leader and celebrating the nations’ “friendship and unity.”

Xi and Kim express their hopes for greater ties

In a summit later Monday, Xi expressed China’s willingness to expand co-operation in a wide range of areas including trade, agriculture, construction and technology, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said in an online report.

Xi said the two countries should strengthen strategic cooperation and firmly safeguard their respective sovereignty and security interests, according to the report.

Kim said Xi’s visit “clearly demonstrates how unbreakable” the North Korean-China relationship is, CCTV said. It cited Kim as saying that consolidating a new era of friendship between the two countries is the “unchanging strategic choice” of North Korea.

Full details of the meeting weren’t available. But foreign experts earlier predicted the meeting would have big ramifications on bilateral ties and beyond, as they both seek to fully restore their traditional alliance in the face of separate confrontations with the U.S.

Xi and Kim last met in Beijing in September, after viewing a military parade alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and other foreign leaders.

Sway over North Korea could help Xi’s dealings with U.S.

Xi’s trip comes after his back-to-back summits with U.S. President Donald Trump and Putin in Beijing last month. Xi is expected to meet Trump again on a planned U.S. visit in September.

Xi will try to demonstrate China’s “sway over the Korean Peninsula” and “a leadership role in entire Northeast Asia in the age of strategic competition with the U.S.,” said Kwak Gil Sup, the head of One Korea Center, a website specializing in North Korea affairs.

China has long been North Korea’s economic lifeline and main diplomatic backer. Experts say China has avoided fully enforcing U.N. sanctions on North Korea and sent clandestine aid to help its impoverished neighbor stay afloat. This year marks 65 years since the two countries signed a mutual defense treaty.

But there have been questions about their ties in recent years, with North Korea prioritizing cooperation with Russia by supplying troops and weapons to support its war against Ukraine. In return, North Korea has received economic and military assistance from Russia.

Restoring an exclusive influence over North Korea would give Xi a leverage in dealings with Trump, who has repeatedly expressed his desire to restart diplomacy with Kim, experts say.

“Implementing UN Security Council resolutions and enforcing sanctions do not appear to be priorities for China,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

A two-way trade volume between China and North Korea last year recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Earlier this year, the countries also resumed direct flights and passenger trains, stalled since the pandemic. Xi said Monday that both nations should use the reopening of flight and train services as a chance to expand people-to-people exchanges.

Kim needs Xi’s support for his push for nuclear state

Xi would likely offer Kim economic aid packages such as shipments of rice and fertilizers, a resumption of Chinese group tourism to North Korea. and joint economic projects, analysts said.

“North Korea can’t solely rely on Russia. It needs to align with China,” Kwak said.

Xi could also refrain from pressing Kim on the issue of denuclearization of North Korea, and vaguely speak about peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. That would be essential for Kim, who is desperate to win international recognition as a nuclear weapons state as a way to call for lifting of UN sanctions on North Korea.

“Chinese officials have taken the position of not speaking publicly about denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula while still maintaining it as a long-term goal. Kim appears to want Xi to accept North Korea as a nuclear neighbor,” Easley said.

After last month’s summit between Trump and Xi, the White House said the two leaders confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea. But China only said the leaders discussed the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. On Sunday, Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, echoed her brother, dismissed as an “anachronistic dream” a U.S. push for the denuclearization of North Korea.

Last week, Kim unveiled a new plant to produce nuclear ingredients and vowed to bolster the country’s nuclear forces “at an exponential rate.” He also observed sea trials of a new naval destroyer and called for speeding up efforts to build a nuclear-armed navy.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung told reporters 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.

Kim Jong Un has focused on enlarging and modernizing his nuclear arsenal since his high-stakes diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. The North Korean leader said in September that he still had “good personal memories” of Trump but urged the U.S. to withdraw its demand for North Korea to denuclearize as a precondition for resuming diplomacy.

----

By Hyung-jin Kim And Ken Moritsugu

Moritsugu reported from Beijing. Associated Press writers Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul and E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing contributed to this report.