China’s Xi Jinping arrives in North Korea on rare state visit

Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Pyongyang, marking a rare state visit to North Korea for a leader who has steadily cut down his travels in recent years.

Amid a 21-gun salute and the fanfare of a military band playing both countries’ national anthems, Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, were welcomed on Monday at the international airport by North Korean President Kim Jong Un and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, China’s state news agency Xinhua reported.

A cheering crowd dressed in festive attire, including children holding flags, flowers and balloons, welcomed the Chinese leader at Pyongyang’s main square. Buildings were wrapped in the Chinese and North Korean flags.

During a two-day trip, his first visit to North Korea in seven years, Xi is expected to hold a summit with Kim. The two leaders met in Beijing just a year ago when China held a huge military parade to mark 80 years since Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allied forces, bringing an end to the second world war.

Before his visit, Xi wrote in an editorial that relations between Beijing and Pyongyang were at a “new ‌historical starting point, facing new development opportunities”. He said maintaining, consolidating and developing ties between the two have “always been an unwavering policy” of the Communist Party.

Traditionally, Beijing played the role of senior partner in the China-North Korea relationship, with Pyongyang heavily dependent on its northwestern neighbour for as much as 95 percent of its trade, according to a 2022 estimate by the National Committee on North Korea, a United States-based nonprofit organisation. But things have started to change since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, as Pyongyang provided Moscow with critical weapons, artillery and manpower.

Experts say China is likely seeking to reassert its influence over North Korea to prevent it from leaning too heavily towards Moscow and to acquire technology that would make it militarily stronger. Xi’s goal, they say, is to demonstrate China’s leadership role in Northeast Asia in the age of strategic competition with the US. The Chinese leader could offer Kim economic aid packages such as shipments of rice and fertilisers, a resumption of Chinese group tourism to North Korea and joint economic projects, analysts said.