North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is heading to Beijing by train on Tuesday to attend a military parade with his Chinese and Russian counterparts, North Korea’s state media reported. The event could potentially demonstrate three-way unity against the USA.
Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among the 26 world leaders set to join Chinese President Xi Jinping to watch Wednesday’s massive military parade in Beijing that commemorates the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China’s fight against Japan’s wartime aggressions.
It’s set to be Kim’s first attendance at a major multilateral event during his 14-year rule, and the first time Kim, Xi and Putin, all key challengers of the US, gather at the same venue.
North Korea’s foreign policy priority has been Russia in recent years as it has been supplying troops and ammunition to support Russia’s war against Ukraine in exchange for economic and military assistance.
According to South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent around 15,000 troops to Russia since last fall. In its latest briefing to lawmakers, the South Korean spy agency said it believes roughly 2,000 of them have so far died in combat. Kim has also agreed to additionally send thousands of military construction workers and deminers to Russia’s Kursk region, and the agency assesses that the first 1,000 are already in Russia.
North Korea’s relations with China have reportedly turned sour in recent years, but experts say Kim likely hopes to restore ties as China is North Korea’s biggest trading partner and aid benefactor and that he would want to brace for the end of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Kim’s trip comes as US President Donald Trump and new liberal South Korean President Lee Jae-myung have repeatedly expressed their hopes to restart talks with North Korea. North Korea has been shunning talks with the US and South Korea and pushing to expand its nuclear and missile arsenals since Kim’s earlier round of diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019.
Three countries with ‘much in common’
Xi on Tuesday welcomed Putin as an “old friend” as the two began a series of meetings at a time when their countries face both overlapping and differing challenges from the US.
Relations between China and Russia have deepened in recent years, particularly after the 2022 Ukraine invasion.
Putin and Xi held a three-way meeting with Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa in Beijing. His landlocked country of grasslands and mineral mines is sandwiched between the two giants.
Putin in his opening remarks said the three countries are good neighbours with a shared interest in developing ties. “Our three countries have much in common,” he said.
The talks came a day after both attended a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the nearby Chinese city of Tianjin, and a day before a grand Chinese military parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The SCO club of 10 countries touts itself as a non-Western style of collaboration in the region and seeks to be an alternative to traditional alliances.
The summit brought Xi and Putin together with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who held separate talks Monday with both leaders on the sidelines of the meeting.
Trump’s steep tariffs on India and the tone coming from the White House have pushed New Delhi closer to China and Russia, though Modi will not attend China’s military parade.
