Chinese leader Xi Jinping received a pomp-filled welcome as he arrived in North Korea Monday for his first visit to the secluded nation in seven years.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and first lady Ri Sol Ju greeted Xi at the airport in Pyongyang, with official footage showing the pair clapping as Xi’s plane landed, kicking off his two-day state visit.

Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan were “warmly” greeted by Kim and presented with bouquets by North Korean children, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

At a welcome ceremony in Kim Il Sung Square, a mounted cavalry escort lined up to receive the guests, while carefully choreographed crowds waved flowers and flags beneath huge portraits of Xi and Kim installed over the square, state media footage showed.

After a 21-gun salute, the two leaders reviewed the honor guard, whose members shouted in Korean, “We wish Comrade Xi Jinping good health,” CCTV said.

The visit is Xi’s first overseas trip this year and comes just weeks after he separately hosted Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in the Chinese capital.

The timing plays to Beijing’s efforts to cast China as a versatile, global power broker at a moment of intense geopolitical flux.

The trip is also an opportunity for Xi to reassert his country’s close, historic ties with Pyongyang – a clear gesture from Beijing that even as Kim and Putin have elevated their ties in recent years, China remains North Korea’s most critical economic lifeline and diplomatic partner.

In a customary letter to North Korean media ahead of the trip, Xi wrote that “no matter how times change or how the international situation evolves, the traditional friendship between China and North Korea remains unbreakable, enduring, and constantly radiates vitality.”

For North Korea, Xi’s visit marks another chapter in its longstanding balancing act between Russia and China, as it seeks military and economic benefits from both while avoiding excessive reliance on either.

A day before Xi’s arrival, North Korean state media reported that Kim inspected a major munitions company, where he was briefed on “expanding the capacity to produce various ballistic and cruise missiles.”

Last week, Kim visited a new plant that manufactures weapons-grade nuclear material, saying Pyongyang plans to “beef up our state’s nuclear forces at an exponential rate,” state media reported.

It’s not clear the extent to which North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program will be part of talks between the two autocrats.

Beijing is widely seen to be wary of that program, which has traditionally heightened American focus on the region and risks instability that could impact China, which shares a border with North Korea.

But China’s leadership also sees Pyongyang as part of a broader nexus of Beijing-aligned players that act as a counterweight to American power.

Chinese state media framed the trip as an opportunity to “draw a new blueprint for the development of relations between the two parties and the two countries” and “make new contributions to regional peace, stability and prosperity.”

Rebalancing ties

Trips to North Korea from foreign leaders are rare. Xi last visited in 2019, while Putin made a trip in 2024, when Moscow and Pyongyang hailed their tightening military ties by inking a mutual defense treaty.

Ties have noticeably grown cooler between Beijing and Pyongyang in recent years. Covid pandemic-era border closures hampered exchange between the two sides and later, Pyongyang grew closer to Moscow, deploying what are believed to be thousands of soldiers to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The visit is a chance for Xi to push for a rebalancing of these ties and to signal the importance of the relationship to Beijing at a time when the global balance of power is shifting amid the Trump administration’s shake-up of US foreign policy.

Xi and Kim last met in September, when the North Korean leader was among a host of global leaders at a military parade in Beijing – with Kim seated next to Xi for the event. Putin was also at the parade, with the three leaders showcasing an unprecedented show of unity.

The trip coincides with the 65th anniversary of China and North Korea’s 1961 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, China’s only mutual defense treaty, which was signed less than a decade after Chinese troops fought with North Korea in the Korean war.

South Korea’s ties with the North have deteriorated in recent years.

“Russia and North Korea have developed increasingly close ties and the divide between North and South Korea continues to widen,” South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said at a press conference Monday, referencing Xi’s trip. “But we must continue to pursue dialogue.”

Trump has also repeatedly shown interest in restarting high-level US diplomacy with North Korea. The US president met with Kim thrice during his first term – part of a fanfare-filled bid to disband North Korea’s nuclear program that ultimately stalled.

Kim last fall expressed an openness to sitting down with Trump again, but only if the US abandons denuclearization goals. It is difficult to know whether that would be acceptable to Trump, who launched a war against Iran in part to destroy the country’s nuclear enrichment program.

The Korean peninsula was among issues discussed between Xi and Trump during the US president’s three-day visit to Beijing in May.

A White House readout of their meeting at the time said the two leaders have a “shared goal to denuclearize North Korea.” The Chinese readout said Xi and Trump “exchanged views” on the peninsula. (CNN)

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