Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday vowed to expand China’s ties with North Korea and called for regional peace during talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on his first visit to Pyongyang in seven years.

Xi said that China is ‘ready to expand’ practical cooperation with North Korea in the economy and trade, agriculture, construction, science and technology, as well as healthcare, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua.

He also urged both sides to ‘firmly safeguard’ their sovereignty, security, and development interests.

China and North Korea ‘should jointly maintain regional peace and development’, Xi said.

Xi called on the two countries to deliver greater benefits to their people, deepen practical cooperation, maintain high-level exchanges, and strengthen political mutual trust.

The Chinese president said he is ready to work with Kim to advance bilateral ties and strengthen the alignment of the two countries’ development strategies.

“No matter how the international situation changes, the Chinese party and government’s firm commitment to safeguarding the shared interests of the two countries and preserving a favourable strategic environment will not change,” Xi said.

The visit – Xi’s first overseas trip this year – comes at Kim’s invitation.

Xi’s talks with Kim during the rare visit come as the two sides mark the 65th anniversary of their treaty of friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance.

The Chinese leader last visited North Korea in 2019, making him the first Chinese president in 14 years to travel to the country.

Xi’s trip comes at a time of shifting regional dynamics, including the strengthening of ties between Pyongyang and Moscow under a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty signed in 2024, which includes mutual defence commitments.

China remains North Korea’s most important economic partner. Bilateral trade last year rose to about US$2.79bn, the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic and close to pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019.

Observers are closely following whether Xi and Kim will discuss North Korea’s nuclear development programme, which China has not criticised recently, as well as their respective policies toward the United States and Japan.

Xi accompanied by top diplomats

Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, welcomed Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at a Pyongyang airport. After Xi walked down the airstairs, Kim warmly shook hands with the Chinese leader, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.

North Korean children presented flowers to Xi and Peng. The Chinese president is being accompanied by top diplomat Wang Yi and Cai Qi, the No. 5 figure in China’s ruling Communist Party, Xinhua added.

In an article published on Monday in the Rodong Sinmun, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, Xi said the two countries should ‘oppose hegemonism and power politics’, and ‘reject any scheme or action aimed at reviving militarism and undermining regional security and stability’.

Xi’s remarks ‘target’ US, Japan

His remarks, also reported by Chinese state-run media, apparently targeted the United States and Japan.

Beijing has recently stepped up its criticism of Tokyo’s defence buildup policies spearheaded by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi amid a bilateral row over her parliamentary remarks last November on Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by China.

Takaichi said an attack by the mainland on Taiwan could constitute a ‘survival-threatening situation’ for Japan that could trigger a response by the Self-Defence Forces in support of the United States.

Many Chinese and North Korean flags were hoisted on a main street in Pyongyang to welcome Xi. The Rodong Sinmun also said in its editorial on Monday that North Korea will ‘continue to forge ahead by joining hands with Chinese comrades’.

Xi’s talks with Kim come after meetings with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing last month.

Following the summit between Xi and Trump, the White House said the two leaders confirmed their shared goal of denuclearising North Korea, but China did not refer to the issue in its readout.

Agencies