Chinese and North Korean officials step up diplomatic drive in wake of Kim Jong-un visit

Senior Chinese and North Korean officials met on Thursday in the wake of Kim Jong-un’s recent cross-border visit and a renewed drive by the two sides to deepen their relationship.

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi struck an upbeat tone on the relationship between the two countries when he hosted a visiting delegation led by Kim Song-nam, the international affairs chief of the Workers’ Party of Korea, in Beijing.

“China is ready to work with the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to resolutely carry out the key consensus reached by the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries, and to advance bilateral ties towards deeper, greater, substantive and better development,” Wang told Kim.

He was acting in his capacity as a member of the Politburo and director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs rather than as foreign minister, according to the Communist Party’s International Department, Beijing’s main agency for managing ties with Pyongyang.

Wang, along with Beijing’s No. 4 official Wang Huning, was also among the officials who welcomed the North Korean leader to China during his recent trip to the border city of Dandong, where the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to their traditional friendship.

Kim Song-nam’s visit took place shortly after the most important event in China’s political calendar this year, the party’s fifth plenum.

Wang Yi briefed the North Korean visitors on the plenum’s outcome and said Beijing was ready to strengthen exchanges on party building and governance – something Pyongyang said it was open to, according to the Chinese statement.

Widely regarded as Pyongyang’s foremost China expert, Kim oversees critical party-to-party ties between the two neighbours and previously visited the country in 2024 and 2025, as well as accompanying Kim Jong-un on his latest trip.

“The DPRK is willing to work together with China, in accordance with the will of the top leaders of both parties and both countries, to make unremitting efforts to develop friendly relations,” Kim Song-nam said on Thursday, according to the statement from Beijing.

He also described the North Korean leader’s recent visit, where he marked the 76th anniversary of Chinese troops entering the Korean war, as fresh proof of a friendship “sealed in blood” and hardened by history.

His latest visit coincides with a series of other high-profile meetings, including a visit to North Korea by a delegation from China’s Central Party School and visit to Beijing this week by a delegation from the state news agency KCNA.

The exchanges come about a week ahead of the Apec summit in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, where US President Donald Trump and other world leaders are expected to attend. North Korea is not a member of the group and it is not known if it will be represented at the meeting.

Meanwhile, North Korea test-fired a new air defence missile on Wednesday, the third launch of its kind in under a week.