North Korea's Kim Jong Un to be in China this week for military parade; to meet Xi, Putin

This will be Kim's first appearance on multilateral diplomatic stage since inhering the office in December 2011.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will make a rare visit to China this week, marking his debut on a multilateral diplomatic stage since taking office 14 years ago.

This will be North Korean laeader Kim Jong Un's first visit to China in six years. (AP)

This will be Kim's first visit to China in six years. He will attend a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday, September 3.

The North Korean leader will not just meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, but will also see Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is already in China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

Kim will be among 26 foreign leaders who will be in attendance at the parade Beijing is hosting to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China's resistance against Japanese wartime aggression, China's foreign ministry said.

“We warmly welcome General Secretary Kim Jong Un to China to attend the commemorative events,” China's assistant minister of foreign affairs, Hong Lei, said during 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," Lei added.

North Korea, China and Russia

This will be the first time that Kim, Xi and Putin will be at the same event together. While the three countries are indulged in separate matters with the US, they haven't yet formed a clear three-way alliance.

The leaders have met one another bilaterally, but have never gathered in a trilateral form.

Soo Kim, a former CIA analyst, said, "Kim’s attendance is significant for his own international stature, but it also holds weight in the balance of alliances between the U.S. and China."

"Xi, Putin, and now Kim attending the parade cements a visible statement about the alignment between the three countries," Soo was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

North Korea-China ties

This week's trip to China will be Kim's first visit to the country in six years. Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, "Xi will see this as an opportunity to re-engage with Kim after an extended period of arm’s-length treatment."

“Xi may be more gracious than usual with Kim for this purpose,” Cha said. He added that such a gesture might put Kim in a position of "two powers vying for his favour".

Even though North Korea's foreign policy priority is Russia right now, many observers are of the thought that Kim might move to improve ties with China.

According to the South Korean government, about 97 per cent of North Korea's external trade was with China, while 1.2 per cent was with Russia in 2023.

Deputy head of the private Sejong Institute in South Korea, Cheong Seong-Chang, said Kim is likely going to China to ask for assistance as North Korea needs resources for lavish celebrations of two domestic events: the anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party in October and a party congress early next year.

Kim at multinational event

Kim has met Xi, Putin, US President Donald Trump, former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and others since inheriting office from his father after his death in December 2011.

Moon Seong Mook, an analyst for the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said, “Given that other leaders attending are mostly from pro-Russia and pro-Chinese countries, Kim likely intends to form solidarity with those Global South countries while showing he’s leader of a normal country."