China, North Korea pledge closer ties after Wang visit

by · UPI

SEOUL, April 10 (UPI) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui in Pyongyang, both countries said Friday, as the two sides pledged to deepen cooperation and coordination amid a warming of ties.

Wang arrived Thursday for a two-day visit, his first trip to North Korea since 2019, in the latest sign of renewed high-level engagement between the longtime allies.

China is ready to "strengthen strategic communication, enhance exchanges and cooperation ... and jointly promote regional peace and development," Wang said, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout.

He said exchanges over the past year had been "full of highlights," demonstrating that the countries' traditional friendship "will never fade and is unbreakable."

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At a reception in Pyongyang on Thursday, Wang also praised North Korea's development despite what he described as "ever-escalating moves of the U.S. and other Western forces to isolate and stifle it," state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.

Choe said Wang's visit was "a manifestation of the firm stand of the Chinese party and government to revitalize the high-level visits and communication between the two sides," KCNA said, reaffirming Pyongyang's commitment to advancing relations based on shared socialist principles.

China has long been North Korea's largest trading partner, and international observers say it continues to help Pyongyang skirt punishing economic sanctions. Ties had appeared to cool in recent years, however, as North Korea deepened military cooperation with Russia following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Wang's visit comes amid a series of recent high-level exchanges signaling a rebound in relations.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled to Beijing in September for a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, where he held his first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in six years.

Wang and Choe also held talks in China later that month, while Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited Pyongyang in October to participate in events marking the founding of the North's ruling Workers' Party -- the highest-level visit by a Chinese leader since Xi's trip in 2019.

Transport links have also resumed after years of pandemic-related disruption, with Air China restarting direct Beijing-Pyongyang flights last week and passenger rail service reopening last month.

The renewed engagement comes ahead of an expected summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Xi in China next month. Speculation has persisted that the visit could provide an opportunity to revive Trump's one-on-one diplomacy with Kim Jong Un.