Xi Jinping said he reached an “important consensus” with Kim Jong Un on further developing China-North Korea relations as the two countries celebrated their “unbreakable” bond during a rare summit in Pyongyang.
The leaders of the two countries said they reached a “satisfactory agreement” on issues including safeguarding the sovereignty, security and development interests of their countries, North Korean state media reported on Tuesday.
Mr Xi’s two-day state visit to North Korea – first outside the country this year – kicked off on Monday with a highly choreographed welcome as Mr Kim attempted to woo the Chinese leader with a military band performance, giant portraits of the two leaders, and a military parade.
Mr Xi’s first visit to North Korea in seven years marked his latest effort to reinforce ties with the reclusive country amid heightened geopolitical tensions. It is also being seen as an attempt to reassert Beijing’s unique influence over its communist neighbour.
Mr Xi and Mr Kim visited the China-North Korea Friendship Tower in Pyongyang on Tuesday, accompanied by their wives, Chinese state media reported. The monument honours Chinese soldiers who fought in the Korean War.
The leaders observed a moment of silence and pledged to carry forward the spirit of “resisting US aggression and aiding Korea”, according to Xinhua.
Mr Xi and Mr Kim held their summit at the Kumsusan State Guest House on Monday, the state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.
The North Korean leader told Mr Xi that his visit to Pyongyang as the first foreign trip for this year is “an expression of your top priority” to the North Korea-China friendship.
“Your current visit will mark an important occasion of showing once again that the DPRK and China have always stood together on the right side of history for independence and justice and their relations are definitely solid as they have stood the test of history under any international upheavals,” Mr Kim said, referring to North Korea by its official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Mr Xi said both sides should enhance exchanges in diplomacy, law enforcement, military affairs, implement the important consensus reached between the two leaders, and pool wisdom and strength for the development of China-DPRK relations.
Mr Kim also reiterated Pyongyang’s support for Beijing’s “one-China principle”, a reference to Beijing’s official position that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory.
“This visit once again clearly demonstrates that the DPRK-China relationship is unbreakable,” Mr Xi said.
Mr Kim and Mr Xi discussed international and regional issues and reached broad agreement on strengthening strategic coordination to safeguard their shared interests, KCNA said.
The two neighbours have long maintained a complicated relationship as China has remained North Korea’s main economic partner while Pyongyang has also sought to maintain some independence from Beijing.
Meanwhile, China has tried to maintain close ties with North Korea to keep watch on its nuclear-armed neighbour’s activities while refraining from reining it in over its nuclear ambitions and frequent missile tests.
After their ties soured during the coronavirus pandemic due to North Korea’s strict border control, Mr Kim is appearing to warm up to China again.
Mr Xi hailed Mr Kim for ushering a “new period of comprehensive development” in North Korea’s socialist cause and vowed that Beijing would not swerve from its commitment to safeguard common interests, Xinhua said.
The two countries said they agreed on bilateral exchanges and cooperation, broadly mentioning them under areas of economy and trade, infrastructure, science and technology, education, as well as people-to-people and cultural exchanges.
Notably, what remained absent in mention was Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme or the broader situation on the Korean Peninsula. State media of either country did not make any reference to the matters.
During his last visit to Pyongyang in 2019, Mr Xi mentioned China would work toward the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.
South Korea’s president Lee Jae Mying said Seoul must continue to pursue its goal of North Korea’s denuclearisation, calling on countries to not give up on the issue.
“We should not give up on the goal of denuclearisation, because we cannot pursue nuclear armament ourselves,” Mr Lee said on Monday, noting that “North Korea is still producing nuclear material even at this very moment”.
“South Korea asks China to play a constructive role toward improving inter-Korean relations, but that does not appear to be Beijing’s priority,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said.
China and Russia’s support for North Korea, not conditioned on denuclearisation, leaves Pyongyang with little need or incentive to engage with Seoul.
Analysts said they saw contrasting priorities in the official summaries of the visit by Chinese and North Korea state media.
While China’s official Xinhua news agency detailed proposals ranging from high-level exchanges to trade and agriculture, along with restoration of transport links, KCNA cast the summit more broadly as a pact of equal partners, the analysts said.
“North Korea removed elements that could make it look like a subordinate, dependent or beneficiary party, and rewrote the relationship as one between equals,” said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
“It amplified signals of solidarity, such as anti-US and Taiwan-related messages, while erasing signals of dependence or subordination.”
