• Summit marks 6th bilateral meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and North Korea's Kim Jong Un
• Meeting comes after Kim held his 4th bilateral summit with Russian President Putin a day earlier
• Xi last visited North Korea in 2019, as China remains essential economic partner of Pyongyang

ISTANBUL 

China’s President Xi Jinping hosted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Beijing for a bilateral summit on Thursday, according to Chinese state media.

Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun had said Xi and Kim “will hold talks to exchange in-depth views on China-North Korea relations and issues of common concern.”

Thursday's Beijing summit marks their sixth such bilateral meeting since 2018.

Guo had also said: "China is willing to work with North Korea to strengthen strategic communication, enhance exchanges and cooperation, deepen the sharing of governance experiences, and advance the development of their respective socialist causes and the traditional friendly cooperative relations between China and North Korea."

Kim is in Beijing – his fifth trip to China – where he attended China’s Victory Day Parade on Wednesday, alongside Xi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and 26 foreign leaders.

The meeting between Xi and Kim comes as North Korea’s ties with Russia have grown closer over the past few years.

Kim held his fourth bilateral summit with Putin in Beijing on Wednesday, where the North Korean leader pledged “full support” to Russia amid its war with Ukraine.

Moscow and Pyongyang last June signed a comprehensive strategic partnership pact under which the two sides are required to extend military aid in case of a third-party attack.

Soon after, North Korea deployed thousands of soldiers to Russia, and South Korea has claimed it lost some 2,000 troops in the ongoing Moscow-Kyiv war.

Ties with China important on economic side

Kim, 41, traveled to Beijing using his special armored train, accompanied by Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, along with other senior officials. He reached Beijing on Tuesday afternoon, some 20 hours after he left Pyongyang on Monday afternoon.

He is also accompanied by his daughter Kim Ju Ae, in her first overseas trip with the North Korean leader.

Xi and Kim, who assumed top offices in 2013 and 2011, respectively, held their first five summits within just two years, in 2018 and 2019, as the following years disrupted cross-border travels due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

China is an essential economic partner of North Korea – one of the world’s most-sanctioned countries due to its nuclear arsenal – whose economy in 2024 saw its biggest expansion in eight years.

According to economic data from Beijing, China's exports to North Korea in the first half of 2025 grew 33% to $1.05 billion, while imports rose 20% to $210 million.

The bilateral trade climbed to around $2.2 billion at the end of 2023.

North Korea’s gross domestic product is estimated to have grown by 3.7% on an annual basis in 2024, following 3.1% on-year growth in 2023, South Korea’s Central Bank said last month.

It added that the growth was led by increased exports and advances in the construction and manufacturing industries.