China Announces Xi Jinping’s First Visit to North Korea Since 2019

China announced on Friday that dictator Xi Jinping will make his first trip to North Korea since 2019 next week, in a bid to shore up China’s ties with its erratic neighbor after North Korea grew closer to Russia.

The announcement by China’s state-run Xinhua news service said that Xi will visit North Korea on Monday June 8 and Tuesday June 9, at the invitation of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. The visit was officially announced by the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party’s powerful Central Committee.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Friday that Xi’s second state visit to North Korea, which refers to itself as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), would include an exchange of views on “bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest.”

“In recent years, under the strategic guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping and General Secretary Kim Jong Un, the traditional friendly cooperative relationship between China and the DPRK has maintained sound and steady growth and delivered tangible benefits for both countries and peoples,” Mao said.

“This year marks the 65th anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and the DPRK,” she noted.

“The visit will be an opportunity for the two sides to work together to further advance bilateral ties in keeping with the times, promote the welfare of the two peoples, and contribute more to peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and beyond,” she said.

The treaty mentioned by Mao, signed in July 1961, is the only formal military alliance China has signed with another country. The treaty obliges each country to aid the other in the event of an attack.

The treaty almost lapsed in 2021, at a time when relations between Beijing and Pyongyang were under strain from the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, but Xi and Kim decided to renew the treaty for another 20 years as a sign of their “unswerving support” for each other, and their mutual antipathy toward “hostile forces.”

Outside observers viewed Xi’s upcoming visit as an effort to ensure China remains the undisputed leader of the axis of tyranny, after North Korea grew close to Russia by supplying troops for President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine — and receiving a huge windfall of cash and other benefits from Russia in return.

“As North Korea builds closer ties with Russia, China seeks to use Xi’s trip to reassert its influence over Pyongyang and safeguard its strategic interests in northeast Asia,” International Crisis Group analyst William Yang told the Associated Press on Friday.

AFP cited statistics that show North Korea “depends on China for up to 95 percent of total trade and 85 percent of its exports,” so the importance of that bilateral relation to Pyongyang is obvious.

China, on the other hand, seems a little apprehensive about North Korea’s renewed enthusiasm for nuclear warheads and other weapons it can buy with its fat stacks of Russian rubles. 

Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification told AFP that Xi might want to “manage” Kim’s “extremely rapid” nuclearization, and perhaps keep South Korean hopes of a Chinese intervention against North Korea alive, which gives Xi diplomatic currency with Seoul.

“If North Korea acts in a provocative and belligerent manner, it could trigger regional conflict, which could run counter to China’s interests,” Hong pointed out.

The BBC saw Kim savoring the “propaganda value” of a visit by the Chinese dictator, further elevating North Korea’s standing on the world stage, while Xi might be “wary of the burgeoning alliance between Kim and Putin.”

“Kim has been proudly displaying his nuclear and missile arsenal. He has also been showing off the capital Pyongyang to visiting dignitaries. And he wants the world to know that it was all achieved without bending his knee to the US or engaging with the South,” the BBC noted.

The Korea Herald observed that when Xi met with Putin in Beijing last week, one of their joint statements concerned “opposition to actions that, in their view, threaten North Korea’s security through diplomatic isolation, economic sanctions and military pressure.”

“The statement has been interpreted as a sign that China and Russia are ready to provide more support to North Korea, hinting that the emerging trilateral alignment among North Korea, China and Russia is being strengthened,” the report said.