China's Xi in North Korea for rare visit
Kim and his wife Ri Sol-ju welcomed Xi, who was accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan.
A woman walks past a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of the 2019 meeting between China's President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at a train station in Seoul on June 8, 2026. (Photos by AFP)
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PYONGYANG — China's President Xi Jinping hailed an "invincible friendship" with Pyongyang on arrival in North Korea Monday, his first trip abroad this year after hosting back-to-back summits in Beijing.
China has been North Korea's main trading partner by far for decades and a key source of diplomatic and economic support for a country hit by multiple international sanctions.
Military officers lined a red carpet as an Air China plane carrying Xi arrived for his first visit since 2019, video from Xinhua showed.
The two leaders shook hands, and children presented flowers to Xi and Peng, while a banner reading "We warmly welcome Comrade Xi Jinping" and hailing the two countries' "unbreakable friendship" hung below Chinese and North Korean flags.
Xi makes the trip after hosting US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin separately in Beijing and as North Korea's nuclear talks with Washington remain deadlocked.
The national flags of North Korea and China are displayed on a street in Pyongyang on June 8, 2026.
The White House said last month that Xi and Trump "confirmed their shared goal to denuclearise North Korea" during their summit in Beijing.
However, leader Kim Jong Un's powerful sister said on the eve of Xi's arrival that North Korea's nuclear weapons programme was "the line of no retreat".
South Korea's dovish President Lee Jae Myung said Monday Seoul should not give up on North Korea's denuclearisation, adding that "North Korea is still producing nuclear material even at this very moment".
"No matter how the times change or how the international situation evolves, the traditional friendship between China and North Korea is always invincible," Xi wrote.
Xi last met Kim in September, when he invited the North Korean leader and Putin to a military parade in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
North Korea is also the only country with an official, binding military alliance with China.