Xi Tells Kim China-North Korea Friendship 'Will Not Change'
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- Xi Jinping told Kim Jong Un in an exchanged letter that China's commitment to their 'traditional friendship' will not change 'regardless of how the international situation evolves,' according to letters published by KCNA on Saturday.
- Kim Jong Un said in his reply that bilateral friendship and cooperation had risen to a 'new strategic level,' per KCNA.
- North Korean Premier Pak Thae Song arrived in Beijing on Friday for a three-day visit to attend an event marking the 65th anniversary of the neighbours' friendship treaty, signed July 11, 1961.
- Xi Jinping traveled to Pyongyang last month for his first visit to North Korea in seven years, where he and Kim Jong Un agreed to expand cooperation across politics, economy and culture.
- The Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance remains China's only active mutual defence pact — a detail that gives Xi's reassurance concrete security weight beyond ceremonial language.
- Xi's letter pledged that Beijing will 'continue to firmly support North Korea's socialist cause under the leadership of General Secretary Kim Jong Un' and 'safeguard the common interests of both countries.'
Why it matters: Xi's pledge to Kim personally reaffirms China's sole active mutual defence pact — an automatic security commitment that few other states carry. Coming one month after Xi's first Pyongyang trip in seven years and on the treaty's 65th anniversary, it locks in a deeper alignment with North Korea at a moment of growing US-led pressure on both Beijing and Pyongyang.
