SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong Un offered China’s president a grand welcome Monday.But the North Korean leader is playing host from a position of rare strength, and his country has come a long way since Xi Jinping’s last visit seven years ago.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Kim’s backing of Russia’s war with Ukraine has paid dividends, his weapons program has cemented North Korea’s status as a de facto nuclear state, and an economy that buckled under the pressure of pandemic isolation and sanctions has since rebounded.Kim was joined by his wife, Ri Sol Ju, as Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, stepped off their plane in Pyongyang, North Korea.
The national flags of North Korea and China are displayed on a street in Pyongyang on Monday.Kim Won Jin / AFP via Getty ImagesTheir motorcade then weaved through streets lined with Chinese and North Korean flags to Pyongyang’s main square, where Kim threw a grand welcome ceremony — a 21-gun salute, a military band, and children waving flags and balloons, according to official videos released by Xinhua.Beyond the pomp and pageantry being lavished on Xi, the North Korean leader is displaying a confidence that his nuclear-armed regime has rarely been able to show in dealing with China — Pyongyang’s longtime economic lifeline and main diplomatic backer.“The key is that Kim Jong Un can receive Xi Jinping from a position of strength.
Otherwise, the North Koreans wouldn’t want China visiting when they’re feeling weak,” John Delury, a visiting research fellow at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told NBC News.The trip coincides with the 65th anniversary of the mutual defense treaty the two countries signed in 1961 — the only such treaty Beijing has ever agreed to — and builds upon their last meeting in September when Kim visited Beijing.
FORSUBSCRIBERS00:0000:00Xi hosts Putin in Beijing days after Trump01:29China and North Korea’s fri...