North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s train has crossed the border into China ahead of his planned attendance at a military parade marking Japan’s surrender in World War II, state media have reported.
Kim is among 26 world leaders scheduled to attend Wednesday’s parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war.
The event in Beijing is set to be the first time that Kim, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have gathered at the same venue.
Kim’s train crossed the North Korea-China border in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the state-controlled Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported.
“Key senior officials from the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are accompanying Comrade Kim Jong Un on his visit to the People’s Republic of China,” the Rodong Sinmun said, using North Korea’s official name.
Kim’s visit to China comes on the heels of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China’s Tianjin, at which Xi and Putin took turns criticising Western dominance of the international order.
One of the world’s most isolated states, North Korea has long relied on China and Russia for economic and diplomatic support.
Pyongyang has grown especially close with Moscow in recent years, sending thousands of troops to support Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Kim, who rarely travels abroad, has met Xi five times since coming to power in 2011, most recently in 2019, when the North Korean leader attended an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of China-North Korea relations.
Kim has met Putin three times, most recently in June 2024, when the two leaders signed a mutual defence treaty in Pyongyang.
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