Chinese dictator Xi Jinping on Monday sent a congratulatory message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on National Day, but international observers described the message as relatively cold and a possible sign of rifts between the two countries.
China is communist North Korea's closest ally but has refrained from expressing support for the Kim regime over the past year, especially since Pyongyang issued a lengthy statement in May slamming Beijing for backing a vague statement supporting the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. North Korea's diplomacy has since tilted toward Russia, and in July it signed a mutual defense treaty with Moscow during dictator Vladimir Putin's first visit to North Korea in decades.
China and North Korea still rely heavily on each other for ideological and economic support. Xi's message to Kim Jong Un seeking to “strengthen communication” comes as North Korea has escalated its belligerent behavior toward South Korea and launched a wave of attacks inside the country. wave A large number of balloons filled with garbage were dropped over the weekend. Meanwhile, China is facing growing economic challenges from the West and resistance to its geopolitical agenda.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea's main state propaganda agency, Explained President Xi Jinping sent it as a message of “heartfelt congratulations” for Communist North Korea's National Day.
“I am confident that the Korean people will surely win new and greater victories in the process of advancing the cause of socialism with the Korean style under the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea led by Kim Jong Un,” Xi reportedly told Kim, an abbreviation for the ruling Communist party, the Workers' Party of Korea.
President Xi promised to “continue to closely monitor and deal with China-North Korea relations.” [North Korea] “We are ready to improve bilateral relations at a strategic level and from a long-term perspective, provide greater welfare for the two peoples and make further contributions to peace, stability, development and prosperity,” the Korean Central News Agency said.
The Chinese dictator added that Beijing seeks to “develop the traditional Sino-North Korean relations of friendship and cooperation by deepening strategic communication and strengthening coordination.”
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency Explained In the context of the National Foundation Day message and the upcoming anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Beijing and Pyongyang are considered to be “relatively estranged,” and South Korean sources reportedly have not seen any indication that the two countries are planning a joint “grand celebration” to mark the occasion.
Similarly, Radio Free Asia (RFA) Observed He said Xi's message was “slightly less emotional than previous ones” and that it was the second such message he had sent to Kim Jong Un in the past year, the first having been a New Year's greeting.
North Korea and China remain close allies, but they have been diplomatically farther apart this year than in previous years, and that distance appeared to grow after China joined Tokyo in a summit in Seoul in May. SummitThe conference, the ninth in modern history, united the conservative governments of South Korean President Yun Seok-yol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with the Communist parties and produced a joint statement that infuriated North Korea.
“We reiterated our respective positions on regional peace and stability, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and the abduction issue,” the three countries said in a statement. “We agreed to continue to make positive efforts toward a political resolution of the Korean Peninsula issue.”
The North Korean regime called the statement a “serious political provocation” and a “declaration of war,” and it is notable that it did not exclude its ally, China, from criticism.
A month later, President Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang for the first time since 2000. Putin was in North Korea for just two days, from June 19-20, but used that time to hold wide-ranging, informal talks with Kim Jong Un and to sign a mutual defense pact that restored relations between Moscow and Pyongyang to their Soviet-era state.
Because the agreement “provides for mutual assistance in the event that any of the parties to the treaty is invaded,” according to Putin, many in the international community have publicly expressed concern that North Korea may be forced to join the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian and South Korean governments have already accused North Korea of supporting the invasion by providing missiles and other weapons.
Russia and China are allies and have strengthened their geopolitical cooperation over the past decade, but after Putin's visit to North Korea, there were some signs that Russia's advance into North Korea may come at China's expense. South China Morning Post attention For example, on Monday it was reported that “two weeks after Putin's visit, North Korea switched its state television broadcasts from a Chinese satellite to a Russian one.”
Like Xi Jinping, Putin also commemorated the founding of communist North Korea in a personal message to Kim Jong Un published by the Korean Central News Agency.
“Relations between our two countries have reached a high level, based on the traditions of excellent friendship and good neighborliness,” Putin was quoted as saying. said “This was clearly demonstrated by the constructive and fruitful talks we had recently in Pyongyang,” Kim said.
I am confident that the comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will be strengthened in a planned manner through joint efforts by our two countries.
