Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un pledged to bring bilateral relations into a “new phase”.

Xi Jinping Yes Kim jong un they promised to bring bilateral relations into a “new phase”, as the two neighbors celebrate the 60th anniversary of their friendship treaty, Pyongyang state media reported on Sunday.

Beijing has long been the North Korea’s first diplomatic ally and economic supporter. A relationship inherited from the Korean War (1950-1953), when Mao Zedong sent millions of “volunteers” to fight against the United Nations force led by Washington.

On July 11, 1961, the two countries signed a treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance. Mao then said the two allies were as close as “lips and teeth”.

Relationships have evolved over the decades and have been marked above all by the North Korea’s growing ambition for nuclear weapons.

The two neighbors, however, struggled to consolidate their alliance after the failure of negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington on the nuclear issue.

“Despite the unprecedented complexity of the international situation in recent years, the confident camaraderie and militant friendship between the DPRK and China is growing stronger every day.Kim wrote in a message to Xi, using the regime’s official initials, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In his message quoted by the official press agency KCNA, the North Korean leader insists on the importance of the treaty to “guarantee peace and stability in Asia and in the rest of the world at a time when the hostile forces are more desperate than ever in their actions of obstruction”.

Xi, for his part, wrote, according to KCNA, it says promote “greater happiness” between the two countries and their peoples “bringing with determination the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries to a new phase.

The tone of these messages contrasts with the state of relations between the two men just a few years ago.

It wasn’t until March 2018 that Kim, who took over from her father at the end of 2011, visited Xi in Beijing. They met five times in total.

According to some experts This exchange of messages is addressed to the United States to take note of the quality of the links between the two countries.. All this in a context of diplomatic stagnation on denuclearization, and deterioration of relations between Beijing and Washington.

“It’s a marriage of convenience,” said Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean studies at Ewha University.

Since the end of the Korean War, the two allies have known many disagreements, he told AFP, and “they will never really trust each other.” But they are necessary against the United States. “The closer they are to each other, the more difficult it will be to resolve the North Korean nuclear weapons issue,” he added.

the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party, also published an editorial in which it called bilateral cooperation a “powerful weapon” which enables them to win any anti-imperialist war and to fight for the defense of socialism. Yonhap.

The exchange of messages came after Kim sent a congratulatory message to Xi on the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China, in which he vowed to elevate relations with China to a new strategic point.

(With information from EFE and Europa Press)

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