Seoul:
Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have vowed to bring their relations to a “new stage” as the two nations mark the 60th anniversary of a friendship pact, Pyongyang’s state media reported Sunday.
China is North Korea’s longtime ally and financial benefactor, their relationship forged in the bloodshed of the Korean War, when Mao Zedong sent millions of “volunteers” to fight US-led United Nations forces to a standstill.
The two nations signed a treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual help in the occasion of an armed attack on July 11, 1961, with Mao describing the allies as close as “lips and teeth”.
Relations have fluctuated more than the years due to Pyongyang’s expanding nuclear ambitions, but with negotiations in between North Korea and the US at a standstill, each sides have moved to strengthen their alliance.
“Despite the unprecedentedly complicated international situation in recent years the comradely trust and militant friendship between the DPRK and China get stronger day by day,” Kim wrote in his message to Xi, referring to the North by its official name.
In the message carried by the KCNA news agency, Kim highlighted the part of the pact in “ensuring peace and stability in Asia and the rest of the world now that the hostile forces become more desperate in their challenge and obstructive moves”.
Xi wrote he planned to bring “greater happiness” to the two nations and their men and women “by steadily leading the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries to a new stage,” KCNA mentioned.
‘Marriage Of Convenience’
It is a marked contrast to a handful of years ago, when relations have been poor and Kim had however to meet with Xi due to the fact succeeding his father in December 2011.
Kim paid his initially go to to China in March 2018 and the two leaders have now met 5 instances.
The exchange of messages is the newest sign of renewed ties in between the neighbours, which analysts say is aimed at the United States amid gridlocked nuclear talks in between Pyongyang and Washington and worsening US-Beijing tensions.
“It’s a marriage of convenience,” Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University, told AFP.
The two allies’ relations have had discord due to the fact the finish of the Korean War, he added, and they will “never really trust each other”.
But they want every single other to deal with Washington, Park added.
“And the closer they get, the harder it will be to denuclearise North Korea.”
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