The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, stated during a summit held in Pyongyang with the Chinese President that maintaining and developing friendship with China constitutes his country’s “main strategic task,” state media agency KCNA reported today.
During Monday’s high-level meeting—marking Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first official state visit to North Korea in seven years—the two leaders agreed to open “a new chapter” in bilateral relations by reinforcing exchanges and expanding cooperation across key sectors including politics, economics, and culture, according to KCNA.
On Monday, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua also reported that Xi formally proposed a dynamic boost to diplomatic and military exchanges, declaring that relations between the two neighboring countries have reached “a new historical starting point.”
In a notable shift from official statements issued after their previous meeting in Beijing last September, the reports shared by both Xinhua and KCNA omitted any specific references to the security situation on the Korean Peninsula. Furthermore, the official briefings avoided standard keywords such as nuclear disarmament, nor did they make any mentions of the United States or South Korean governments.
Read more about this topic: Xi Jinping: “Friendship with North Korea will last forever” (with video)
Instead, KCNA indicated that the two leaders focused their discussions on strengthening strategic coordination and cooperation in the face of a “complex” international political climate, while pledging to firmly protect each other’s national sovereignty, internal security, and development interests.
While specific details regarding Xi’s itinerary for the second and final day of his state visit were not made public, South Korean media has speculated that the Chinese President may visit the Friendship Tower. This monument, built to commemorate the participation of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army in the Korean War (1950–1953), is a site Xi previously visited during his last trip to North Korea in 2019.
