North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is set to visit China next week for the first time in six years to attend a military parade, both nations confirmed on Thursday. The event will mark his first gathering with a broad group of world leaders since he assumed power in late 2011.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin also coming for the parade, the event will likely underline the three-way alignment among Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang in the face of a U.S. push to bolster its alliances with South Korea and Japan, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
North Korea’s state media said Kim was invited to visit China by President Xi Jinping. Kim will be among 26 foreign leaders who attend next Wednesday’s parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China’s resistance against Japan’s wartime aggressions, China’s foreign ministry said.
“We warmly welcome General Secretary Kim Jong Un to China to attend the commemorative events,” Hong Lei, China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs, told a press conference. “Upholding, consolidating and developing the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK is a firm position of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government.”
DPRK refers to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
Since inheriting power upon his father’s death in December 2011, Kim has met Xi, Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and others. But all those summits were bilateral meetings and Kim hasn’t attended any big multilateral events with foreign leaders.
