Xi urges China, North Korea to keep ‘strategic resolve’ amid global turmoil

BEIJING/SEOUL, July 10 (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping called on China and North Korea to maintain “strategic determination” in the turbulent global environment and speed up the implementation of agreements reached with Kim Jong Un last month, according to reports in Chinese state media.

Xi made the statement during a meeting with North Korean Prime Minister Pak Thae Song, who arrived in Beijing on a three-day visit early Friday to attend an event marking the 65th anniversary of the friendship treaty between the neighbors.

Xi traveled to Pyongyang last month on his first visit to North Korea in seven years, where he and Kim agreed to expand cooperation in politics, economy and culture.

“Currently, the international situation is intertwined with changes and turmoil. China and North Korea should maintain strategic determination and increase strategic confidence,” state broadcaster CCTV quoted ‌Xi as saying. he said.

He called for faster implementation of the compromise he reached with Kim and said the two sides should ensure their relations “keep up with the times,” CCTV reported.

Xi told Pak that the two countries should strictly protect their sovereignty, security and development interests.

WARM-UP TIES

The Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, signed on July 11, 1961, remains China’s only active mutual defense pact.

Beijing sought to bring Pyongyang back to its side after the Covid-19 pandemic froze contacts and Kim deepened ties with Moscow by sending troops and weapons to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Relations between China and North Korea have warmed markedly since late 2025, as the two sides stepped up diplomatic relations and resumed passenger train services and direct flights between their capitals.

But analysts said North Korea is still limited in how far it can go to improve ties with China after drawing closer to Russia and receiving economic aid in return.

Pak, 70, became North Korea’s prime minister in December 2024, rising to cabinet chief after a long career in the ruling Workers’ Party, initially specializing in propaganda and party disciplinary functions, then working in a variety of roles on industrial, scientific and education policies.

A longtime member of Kim’s inner circle, Pak has worked closely with the North Korean leader since the early years of his rule after Kim came to power in 2011 and during the period when he was being groomed to possibly succeed him.

Pak was briefly sidelined for officially undisclosed reasons in the early 2020s, as North Korea implemented some of the world’s strictest COVID-19 lockdown measures.

Pak is known to have traveled abroad only a few times, mostly to China and Russia in 2018 and 2019. In October 2019, he visited Moscow as chairman of the Supreme People’s Assembly.

(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom and Jack Kim in Seoul; Editing by Ros Russell and Sharon Singleton)