Kim Jong Un vows stronger ties with China after Xi Jinping summit

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has promised to continue strengthening bonds with China and described a recent summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “historic occasion” in advancing relations with his larger neighbour.

In a congratulatory message to Xi marking the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, Kim said Pyongyang’s stance was to progressively develop ties with Beijing, according to a report by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday.

“It is the steadfast stand of our Party and government to steadily develop the DPRK-China friendly relations with long and historical roots and with socialism as their core,” Kim said in the message, using the initials of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“The recent Pyongyang summit was a historic occasion of deepening the comradely friendship and trust between us,” Kim said, adding that the two leaders had reaffirmed their “unshakable will” to advance bilateral ties.

Xi’s visit to Pyongyang on June 8 and 9 was his first to North Korea in nearly seven years, according to South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency.

Kim also said in his message to Xi that North Korea-China relations were “the common wealth of the peoples of the two countries”.

During Xi’s summit with Kim, the two leaders adopted what North Korean state media described as a “far-reaching blueprint” for strengthening “the most powerful and strategic relations”.

Xi pushed for closer diplomatic, law enforcement and military cooperation with North Korea during the visit, according to Chinese state media.

Though North Korea has drawn extremely close to Russia in recent years, including signing a strategic defence agreement that saw thousands of North Korean troops deployed to fight in Russia’s war in Ukraine, China remains North Korea’s largest economic partner.

According to South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, China accounted for nearly 98 percent of North Korea’s foreign trade in 2024.

Foreign ministers discuss North Korean POWs in Ukraine

On Tuesday, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha was in the South Korean capital, Seoul, to meet with his counterpart, Cho Hyun, to discuss bilateral relations and the fate of North Korean prisoners of war captured in Ukraine, Yonhap reported.

According to Yonhap, two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces in 2025 have expressed a desire to defect to South Korea if released by Ukraine.

South Korea maintains that North Korean troops are “constitutionally regarded as South Korean nationals”, Yonhap said, and the government in Seoul said it “would accept any POWs wishing to come to South Korea”.

A senior South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said earlier this month that Seoul and Kyiv “had already reached a basic understanding” regarding the issue of POWs and hoped to progress those talks during the Ukrainian foreign minister’s visit, Yonhap added.