North Korea’s Kim To Visit China for First Time in Six Years: What To Know

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be joined by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a visit to China to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, when Chinese communist and nationalist forces helped to defeat a Japanese army of occupation.

Why It Matters

Neighboring China has been North Korea’s steadfast ally and most important trade partner for decades, although Kim has also developed close relations with Russia over the past couple of years, even sending arms and troops to help Moscow in its war against Ukraine.

Kim, like his father and grandfather before him, both of whom led North Korea, rarely travels abroad.

What To Know

North Korean state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim would visit China at the invitation of its leader, Xi Jinping, “to participate in celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War [WWII].”

KCNA did not give dates for the visit, but China’s Victory Day is held on September 3 when, this year, an elaborate military parade is being planned for the capital, Beijing.

Xi is expected to survey tens of thousands of People’s Liberation Army troops parading with some of their most advanced weaponry at Tiananmen Square alongside 26 foreign leaders including Kim and Putin.

No leaders from the United States or other major Western countries are expected to attend, in part because of their differences with Putin over the war in Ukraine.

Nuclear Tensions on Korean Peninsula

North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests since 2006 and has dismissed all efforts by its neighbor, South Korea, and the United States to negotiate an end to its missile and nuclear programs.

President Donald Trump met Kim three times during his first term in office in an unsuccessful bid to press him to give up his nuclear weapons. The president said this week that he looked forward to meeting Kim again at an appropriate time.

U.S. officials have been sounding the alarm this year over what they assess to be North Korea’s efforts to simultaneously shore up its combat prowess and enhance its international partnerships.

The U.S. Office for the Direction of National Intelligence, in an annual threat assessment released in March, described North Korea as being “in its strongest strategic position in decades, possessing the military means to hold at risk U.S. forces and U.S. allies in Northeast Asia, while continuing to improve its capability to threaten the U.S. Homeland.”

Since coming to power in 2012, Kim has sought to rebalance North Korea’s great power ties by investing in more robust relations with Russia.

He oversaw a new chapter in this endeavor last year when he ordered the deployment of an estimated 15,000 troops, and arms including artillery rounds and missiles, to support Russian forces battling a Ukrainian cross-border offensive.

Kim last visited China in early 2019, and Xi paid a visit to North Korea a few months later.

What People Are Saying

Hong Lei, China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs, referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name—the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)—told a press conference: “We warmly welcome General Secretary Kim Jong Un to China to attend the commemorative events…Upholding, consolidating and developing the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK is a firm position of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government.”