{"id":132264,"date":"2026-06-08T05:24:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T11:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/chinese-leader-xi-arrives-in-north-korea-for-closely-watched-talks-with-kim\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T06:26:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:26:28","slug":"xi-and-kim-express-hopes-for-greater-ties-between-china-and-north-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/xi-and-kim-express-hopes-for-greater-ties-between-china-and-north-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"Xi and Kim express hopes for greater ties between China and North Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A street is decorated with the flags of China and North Korea in Pyongyang, on Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jon Chol Jin)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Jon Chol Jin)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 Chinese President Xi Jinping<\/a> and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un<\/a> underscored their commitment to deepen cooperation in a closely watched summit<\/a> on Monday, as Xi made a rare visit to Pyongyang in a likely attempt to reassert Beijing\u2019s unique influence over its socialist neighbor.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Xi later arrived at Pyongyang\u2019s 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\u2019 flags, giant portraits of Kim and Xi and red-and-yellow banners welcoming the Chinese leader and celebrating the nations\u2019 \u201cfriendship and unity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xi and Kim express their hopes for greater ties<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a summit later Monday, Xi expressed China\u2019s willingness to expand cooperation in a wide range of areas including trade, agriculture, construction and technology, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said in an online report.<\/p>\n

Xi said the two countries should strengthen strategic cooperation and firmly safeguard their respective sovereignty and security interests, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Kim said Xi’s visit \u201cclearly 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 \u201cunchanging strategic choice\u201d of North Korea.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Xi and Kim last met in Beijing<\/a> in September, after viewing a military parade<\/a> alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and other foreign leaders.<\/p>\n

Sway over North Korea could help Xi’s dealings with US<\/strong><\/p>\n

Xi\u2019s trip comes after his back-to-back summits with U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> and Putin<\/a> in Beijing last month. Xi is expected to meet Trump again on a planned U.S. visit in September.<\/p>\n

Xi will try to demonstrate China\u2019s \u201csway over the Korean Peninsula\u201d and \u201ca leadership role in entire Northeast Asia in the age of strategic competition with the U.S.,\u201d said Kwak Gil Sup, the head of One Korea Center, a website specializing in North Korea affairs.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

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<\/a> with Kim, experts say.<\/p>\n

\u201cImplementing U.N. 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.<\/p>\n

Kim needs Xi’s support for his push for nuclear state<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Korea can\u2019t solely rely on Russia. It needs to align with China,\u201d Kwak said.<\/p>\n

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 U.N. sanctions on North Korea.<\/p>\n

\u201cChinese 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,\u201d Easley said.<\/p>\n

After last month\u2019s 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\u2019s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, dismissed as \u201cfalse information\u201d the U.S. readout of the Xi-Trump meeting.<\/p>\n

Last week, Kim unveiled a new plant<\/a> to produce nuclear ingredients and vowed to bolster the country\u2019s nuclear forces \u201cat an exponential rate.\u201d He also observed sea trials of a new naval destroyer<\/a> and called for speeding up efforts to build a nuclear-armed navy.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Kim\u2019s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, echoed her brother, calling a U.S. push for the denuclearization of North Korea an \u201cescapist and anachronistic dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim Jong Un has focused on enlarging and modernizing his nuclear arsenal<\/a> since his high-stakes diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. The North Korean leader said in September that he still had “good personal memories\u201d<\/a> of Trump but urged the U.S. to withdraw its demand for North Korea to denuclearize as a precondition for resuming diplomacy.<\/p>\n

__<\/p>\n

Moritsugu reported from Beijing. Associated Press writers Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul and E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

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A building is decorated with the flags of China and North Korea in Pyongyang, Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jon Chol Jin)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Jon Chol Jin)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"FILE
FILE – In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency\/Korea News Service via AP, File)<\/span>(Korean Central News Agency\/Korea News Service via AP, File)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"South
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a press conference to mark the first anniversary of his inauguration in Seoul Monday, June 8, 2026. (Chung Sung-Jun\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span>(Chung Sung-Jun\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A street is decorated with the flags of China and North Korea in Pyongyang, Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jon Chol Jin)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Jon Chol Jin)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A street is decorated with the flags of China and North Korea in Pyongyang, on Monday, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jon Chol Jin)(AP Photo\/Jon Chol Jin) SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un underscored their commitment to deepen cooperation in a closely watched summit on Monday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-132264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132264"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132285,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132264\/revisions\/132285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132264"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=132264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}