Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Pyongyang on Monday for his first trip to North Korea in seven years, and the two countries agreed to expand cooperation in areas from trade to agriculture.
Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, were greeted at Pyongyang's international airport by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, before a motorcade passed streets decorated with Chinese and North Korean flags en route to a ceremony at the capital's main square.
China's state broadcaster CCTV said Xi expressed China's willingness to expand cooperation in a wide range of areas, including construction and technology, and said the two countries should "strengthen strategic cooperation and firmly safeguard their respective sovereignty and security interests."
CCTV cited Kim as saying Xi's visit "clearly demonstrates how unbreakable" the relationship is and called consolidating a new era of friendship the "unchanging strategic choice" of North Korea.
Official videos released by Xinhua showed a grand welcome ceremony that included a 21-gun salute, a military band and children waving flags and balloons as buildings were draped with portraits and red-and-yellow banners.
Xi's trip came after back-to-back summits with U.S. President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Beijing last month, and Xi is expected to meet Trump again on a planned U.S. visit in September.
North Korea showcased recent military and weapons developments ahead of the visit: Kim unveiled a new plant to produce nuclear ingredients last week, observed sea trials of a new naval destroyer and visited a munitions producing facility the day before Xi's arrival and a nuclear material facility a week earlier.
John Delury, a visiting research fellow at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said, "The key is that Kim Jong Un can receive Xi Jinping from a position of strength. Otherwise, the North Koreans wouldn't want China visiting when they're feeling weak."
Kim is estimated to have sent as many as 14,000 troops to fight alongside the Russian military and, NBC News reported, has received help with his economy and military technology; William Yang, senior northeast Asia analyst at the International Crisis Group, said, "As North Korea builds closer ties with Russia, China seeks to use Xi's trip to reassert its influence over Pyongyang."
China has long been North Korea's economic lifeline, and experts say Beijing has avoided fully enforcing U.N. sanctions and has sent clandestine aid; two-way trade volume recovered to pre-pandemic levels last year and direct flights and passenger trains between the countries resumed earlier this year, and Xi said the reopening should be used to expand people-to-people exchanges.
Analysts said Xi would likely offer economic aid such as shipments of rice and fertilizers, the resumption of Chinese group tourism and joint economic projects; North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun called the visit a demonstration of the "invincibility" of the relationship, Kim Yo Jong dismissed a U.S. push for denuclearization as an "anachronistic dream," and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung told reporters that North Korea is producing enough nuclear ingredients annually for about 10-20 bombs and is close to perfecting intercontinental ballistic missile technology, saying the world must first focus on convincing North Korea to freeze its nuclear materials production and ICBM program as a short-term goal.
Full details of the summit were not available, and foreign experts predicted the meeting would have big ramifications on bilateral ties and beyond; the trip coincided with the 65th anniversary of the mutual defense treaty the two countries signed in 1961.