“Friends forever.” What Xi wants from North Korea and what Kim wants from China

Chinese president visiting Pyongyang this week. He wants to show strength on the Korean Peninsula and gain leverage against Trump, while North Korea seeks tacit acceptance of its status as a nuclear power.

During Monday’s meeting, part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first visit to North Korea in seven years, the two leaders agreed to open “a new chapter” in bilateral relations by strengthening exchanges and cooperation in areas such as politics, economics and culture, according to the North Korean state news agency KCNA.

KCNA indicated that the two leaders discussed strengthening coordination and strategic cooperation between the two countries in light of the “complex” international political situation, as well as defending the sovereignty, security and development interests of both parties.

What do you want Xi?

Xi Jinping began his two-day visit to Pyongyang on Monday, his first to the country in seven years and also his first trip abroad in 2026.

The Chinese President is staying at the Kumsusan State Guest House, a complex reserved for a small number of foreign leaders and located next to the mausoleum where the embalmed bodies of the founders of the North Korean regime rest.

During the 2019 visit, Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, attended a ceremony on the palace grounds alongside Kim Jong-un and first lady Ri Sol-ju, receiving tributes from Korean Workers’ Party officials, military personnel and residents of Pyongyang. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, it was the first time that a foreign leader received such a distinction there.

On Monday, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that Xi also proposed to the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, the strengthening of diplomatic and military exchanges, stating that relations between the two countries are “at a new historical starting point”.

The visit should serve to reaffirm Beijing’s influence over Pyongyang and reinforce an alliance that both countries consider increasingly important, according to analysts.

“A Chinese leader does not simply visit North Korea because the time has come to do so. Xi’s trip will have real implications for relations between China and North Korea,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor at Ewha University in Seoul, quoted by the Associated Press.

For Kwak Gil Sup, director of the specialized portal One Korea Center, Xi will seek to demonstrate China’s influence on the Korean Peninsula and assert a regional leadership role in a context of growing strategic competition with Washington.

According to several analysts, regaining more exclusive influence over North Korea could offer Xi a additional letter in negotiations with Trumpwho has expressed interest in resuming diplomatic contacts with Kim.

In an article published this Monday in the official North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun, Xi called for strengthening strategic cooperation between the two countries and joint opposition to “hegemony and the policy of coercion”, defending a multipolar world order.

The Chinese leader highlighted that the “traditional friendship” between the two countries “will last forever” and recalled that he met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un six times in recent years.

Experts predict that Beijing could announce new forms of economic supportincluding rice and fertilizer supplies, the return of Chinese tour groups to North Korea, and joint economic development projects.

“North Korea cannot rely solely on Russia. It needs to align itself with China,” said Kwak.

“Main strategic task” for Pyongyang

The North Korean leader stated during the summit held in Pyongyang with the Chinese President that friendship with China constitutes his country’s “main strategic task”, state agency KCNA reported today.

Analysts consider that one of Kim’s objectives will be to obtain from Beijing a tacit acceptance of North Korea’s status as a nuclear powerreducing Chinese pressure on the issue of denuclearization.

“Kim appears to want Xi to accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed neighbor,” Easley said.

Since negotiations with Trump failed in 2019, Kim has rejected offers of dialogue from the United States and South Korea and focused on expanding and modernizing North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.

What was not discussed

Unlike the statements released after their meeting in Beijing last September, the reports from Xinhua and KCNA made no specific reference to the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The information also does not mention denuclearization, the United States or South Korea.

On Sunday, Kim Yo-jong, sister of the North Korean leader and one of the regime’s main officials, classified the United States’ calls for the denuclearization of North Korea as an “anachronistic dream”.

Xi’s visit comes less than a month after separate meetings in Beijing with US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

China remains North Korea’s main economic and political partnerwhich remains subject to broad international sanctions due to its nuclear weapons program. Beijing is often held responsible for softening the impact of international sanctions on the North Korean regime through cross-border trade and economic support.

This year marks the 65th anniversary of the mutual defense treaty signed between the two countries.