North Korea Kim Jong Un to attend a military procession in Beijing next week
Hong Kong – Government media in both countries reported on Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will make a rare international visit next week to attend a military parade in the Chinese capital.
The show is held in Beijing on September 3 to celebrate the eighty anniversary of the end of World War II.
According to the state -run Chinese news agency, the heads of state and the government will be from 26 countries in the offer, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. The North Korean government media also confirmed the presence of Kim.
The leaders of the United States and its allies are not among those who expect to attend, and they are protesting against Putin’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that China and North Korea are “traditional friendly neighbors” and that the government warmly welcomed Kim to attend the event.
“During the arduous years of the war, the peoples of China and North Korea supported each other and fought side by side against the Japanese aggression, which made important contributions to the victory of the war against fascism and the issue of human justice,” said Hong Li, Director General of the Ministry’s Protocol Administration.
Other leaders of Xinhua said that the attendees, including the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Iranian President Masoud Bezishian, Indonesian President Prabo Subanto, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaybaz Sharif and senior General Min Ang Hinging, Prime Minister in Myanmar.
North Korea, which has been isolated due to international sanctions on nuclear and ballistic missile programs, rarely leave.
It was not immediately clear whenever he would leave China or the time he would be there. Kim did not visit China, the neighbor in North Korea and the largest commercial partner, because before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Korea’s relations in China have been strained in recent years by North Korea’s growing partnership with Russia, as North Korea has sent artillery and forces to support Moscow in its war against Ukraine. Experts say that in return, Russia may provide an advanced military technology that North Korea can use for its weapons programs.
“North Korea is seeking to strengthen relations with China after its moves with Russia, and thus display social solidarity between North Korea, China and Russia,” said Yang Mo Jin, President of North Korea University in Seoul, South Korea, told NBC News.
It was the last trip abroad in September 2023, when he and Putin met in Boubour in the Far East in Russia. Putin also made a trip to Pyongyang, where he and Kim signed a joint defensive agreement in June 2024.
President Donald Trump, who held three personal meetings with Kim during his first term, has repeatedly expressed his interest in reviving the nuclear disarmament talks that collapsed in 2019, including during the White House summit on Monday with South Korean President Lee Jay Mong
North Korea rejected the idea, saying that Trump should accept it as a nuclear state.