En esta noticia
China and North Korea sealed a strategic cooperation pact this Monday during Xi Jinping’s first visit to Pyongyang in seven years. The Chinese president and Kim Jong Un agreed to deepen their alliance in trade, technology, and security, redefining the balance of power in northeast Asia.
The summit, confirmed by the state media CCTV and KCNA, comes after years in which Pyongyang had prioritized its ties with Moscow, sending troops and weapons to the war in Ukraine. With Xi and Kim aligned again, the world faces an alliance that combines China’s economic weight with North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.
What did the two nuclear giants agree to?
Xi expressed China’s willingness to expand cooperation in agriculture, construction, and technology. Kim, for his part, described ties with China as “the strategic work of the highest priority” and received Xi as “the greatest state guest”, according to the official KCNA agency.
The key points of the agreement include:
- Strategic cooperation: mutual defense of sovereignty and security interests.
- Economy: resumption of flights and trains suspended since the pandemic; bilateral trade restored to pre-pandemic levels.
- Geopolitics: Kim reaffirmed Pyongyang’s support for the “one China” principle regarding Taiwan.
- Nuclear program: neither leader mentioned it publicly, an omission analysts consider an implicit endorsement.
Why does this alliance make the world tremble?
Xi’s silence on denuclearization amounts, according to experts, to accepting North Korea as a nuclear power. Some warn that Kim is seeking exactly that recognition in order to demand the lifting of international sanctions.
For the United States, the summit complicates the board: Trump wants to resume diplomacy with Kim, but Seoul has already warned that Pyongyang produces enough nuclear material for 10 to 20 bombs a year. Xi, meanwhile, gains influence over the Korean peninsula that he will use as leverage against Washington at their next meeting, expected in September.