Lavish welcome for Chinese leader in North Korea prior to talks with Kim

A street is decorated with the flags of North Korea and China (AP)

Chinese president Xi Jinping received a lavish welcome as he arrived in North Korea for a rare visit, expected to focus on reasserting China’s unique influence over the North in return for providing economic and political benefits.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju welcomed Mr Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan upon their arrival at Pyongyang’s international airport, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported. The two leaders were said to have shaken hands.

Mr Xi later arrived at Pyongyang’s main square, where a military honour guard and thousands of people, including children carrying balloons, staged a welcoming ceremony.

Buildings surrounding the plaza were draped in the two countries’ flags, giant portraits of Mr Kim and Mr Xi and red-and-yellow banners welcoming the Chinese leader and celebrating the nations’ “friendship and unity”.

The summit is keenly anticipated (AP)

During a two-day trip, his first visit to North Korea in seven years, Mr Xi is expected to hold a summit with Mr Kim.

It will be their first meeting since September, when they met in Beijing after viewing a military parade alongside Russian president Vladimir Putin and other foreign leaders.

No specific agenda has been mentioned. Foreign experts predict the meeting will have big ramifications on bilateral ties and beyond, as they both seek to fully restore their traditional alliance in the face of separate confrontations with the US.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said: “A Chinese leader doesn’t just visit North Korea because a visit is due. Xi’s trip will have real implications for China-DPRK relations.”

Mr Xi’s trip comes after his back-to-back summits with US president Donald Trump and Mr Putin in Beijing last month. Mr Xi is expected to meet Mr Trump again in America in September.

Mr Xi will try to demonstrate China’s “sway over the Korean Peninsula” and “a leadership role in entire north-east Asia in the ages of strategic competitions with the US,” said Kwak Gil Sup, the head of One Korea Centre, a website specialising in North Korea affairs.

Mr Kim was given a lavish welcome ahead of the keenly-anticipated summit (AP)

China has long been North Korea’s economic lifeline and main diplomatic backer. Experts say China has avoided fully enforcing UN sanctions on North Korea and sent clandestine aid to help its impoverished neighbour stay afloat. This year marks 65 years since the two countries signed a mutual defence treaty.

But there have been questions about their ties in recent years, with North Korea prioritising cooperation with Russia by supplying troops and weapons to support its war against Ukraine. In return, North Korea has received economic and military assistance from Russia.

Restoring an exclusive influence over North Korea would give Mr Xi a leverage in dealings with Mr Trump, who has repeatedly expressed his desire to restart diplomacy with Mr Kim, experts say.

“Implementing UN Security Council resolutions and enforcing sanctions do not appear to be priorities for China,” Mr Easley said.

In an article published on the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper, Mr Xi said China and North Korea must boost strategic cooperation and work together to oppose “hegemonism and coercive politics” and pursue an orderly multipolar world.

Mr Xi would likely offer Mr Kim economic aid packages such as shipments of rice and fertilisers, a resumption of Chinese group tourism to North Korea. and joint economic projects, analysts said.

“North Korea can’t solely rely on Russia. It needs to align with China,” Mr Kwak said.

Mr Xi could also refrain from pressing Mr Kim on the issue of denuclearisation of North Korea, and vaguely speak about peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. That would be essential for Mr Kim, who is desperate to win international recognition as a nuclear weapons state as a way to call for lifting of UN sanctions on North Korea.

After last month’s summit between Mr Trump and Mr Xi, the White House said the two leaders confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea.

But China only said the leaders discussed the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. On Sunday, Mr Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, dismissed as “false information” the US readout of the Xi-Trump meeting.