The national flags of North Korea and China are displayed on a street in Pyongyang on June 8, 2026 (Photo by Kim Won Jin / AFP)
Pyongyang, North Korea: China's President Xi Jinping made a rare visit to North Korea on Monday, where he met Kim Jong Un who has drawn closer to Moscow while expanding his country's nuclear weapons programme.
Xi's trip to Pyongyang was his first since 2019, and came after he hosted a series of world leaders including US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Beijing.
China, Washington's chief geopolitical rival, has been North Korea's main trading partner by far for decades and a key source of diplomatic and economic support for a country hit by international sanctions.
In an article published on the front page of North Korea's Rodong Sinmun, Xi underlined the special relationship between the two sides.
"No matter how the times change or how the international situation evolves, the traditional friendship between China and North Korea is always invincible," Xi wrote.
Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan were met at the airport by Kim in a red-carpet welcome complete with military salute and cheering crowds.
Huge portraits of the two leaders loomed over Kim Il Sung Square during a grand welcome ceremony, where Xi and Kim inspected the honour guard as a military band played their national anthems, state broadcaster CCTV showed.
Irreversible
While the two countries are quick to talk up their friendship, North Korea's commitment to its nuclear programme has been a thorn in the relationship.
Beijing has said it wants to see a denuclearised Korean peninsula, but North Korea has repeatedly declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear state, particularly after Kim and Trump's 2019 summit collapsed over Pyongyang's weapons programme and sanctions relief.
China-North Korea exchanges faced a further blow soon after, when Pyongyang shuttered its borders during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Xi's trip came just weeks after he held talks with Trump, during which the White House said the leaders "confirmed their shared goal to denuclearise North Korea".
But leader Kim Jong Un's powerful sister said on the eve of the visit that North Korea's nuclear weapons programme was "the line of no retreat".
