'Traditional China-Korea friendship forever undefeatable'

'Communication and exchanges among militaries to be strengthened'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before bilateral talks during Kim's visit to China on Sept. 4, 2025. China and North Korea announced Wednesday that Xi would make a state visit to the North from Monday through Tuesday. [Yonhap]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before bilateral talks during Kim's visit to China on Sept. 4, 2025. China and North Korea announced Wednesday that Xi would make a state visit to the North from Monday through Tuesday. [Yonhap]

Chinese President Xi Jinping, making his first visit to North Korea in seven years, published a contribution article in the North's state newspaper Monday calling on Pyongyang to jointly defend the international order.

In the piece, carried on the front page of the Korean Workers' Party organ Rodong Sinmun, Xi said the two countries must "strengthen strategic communication and coordination in keeping with the trend of the times, and jointly defend the international system centered on the UN and the international order based on international law."

He also said the two sides must "oppose hegemonism and power politics, and oppose all ambitions and maneuvers that seek to revive militarism and undermine regional security and stability," and should jointly advance "a multipolar world of equality and order, and an inclusive economic globalization that benefits all."

Multipolarity is a concept China champions in opposition to a US-led international order, while the reference to the revival of militarism is widely understood as a veiled warning against Japan's military buildup.

On bilateral ties, Xi said "no matter how times change or how the international situation evolves, the traditional China-Korea friendship will forever remain undefeatable," and underscored the personal bond between the two leaders by noting that he and Kim Jong-un have met six times.

Xi added that "strategic guidance at the highest level is the greatest advantage of China-Korea relations," and that "with the top leaders charting the course and steering the helm, the great ship of China-Korea relations will surely ride the wind, cut through the waves and forge boldly ahead."

He also said "high-level strategic coordination embodies the significance of China-Korea relations for the times," and that the two sides must "firmly support each other in defending national sovereignty, security and development interests, and jointly uphold regional peace and stability, international fairness and justice, and the postwar international order."

Xi did not directly address inter-Korean relations, denuclearization or the Korean Peninsula in the article. He did, however, say the two countries must "support each other in following a socialist path suited to their own national conditions, so as to firmly safeguard the political security of both nations."

Xi also signaled a willingness to deepen military cooperation, citing the upcoming 65th anniversary of the Sino-Korean Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, which falls on July 11.

"On the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the treaty," he said, "we will strengthen communication, exchanges and interactions between our parties, governments and militaries at multiple levels and in multiple areas, and faithfully implement the important common understandings reached by both sides, injecting powerful momentum into the development of China-Korea relations."

Xi arrived in Pyongyang on Monday for a two-day state visit — his first trip to North Korea since June 20-21, 2019. Xi and Kim had previously met on the sidelines of China's commemoration of the 80th anniversary of its World War II victory last September.


moone@heraldcorp.com