North Korea’s Kim to attend China parade with Putin and Xi, signaling strategic alignment

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will make his multilateral diplomatic debut by attending a military parade in Beijing with Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. The visit underscores Pyongyang’s alignment with Moscow and Beijing while signaling cautious positioning vis-à-vis the US and South Korea.

Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to take an initial step onto the multilateral diplomatic stage in China this week, with his planned trip to attend a military parade in Beijing setting the stage for a possible three-way summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

It will be the first time for Kim, who assumed power in late 2011, to attend a multilateral diplomatic event. His grandfather and the North’s founder Kim Il-sung attended a military parade in Beijing in 1959.

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The decision by Kim to attend China’s military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, alongside Putin and Xi, was announced days after both South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and US President Donald Trump expressed their eagerness to resume diplomacy with North Korea in their high-stakes summit in Washington.

With Kim attending this week’s military parade in Beijing with Putin and Xi, it would send a strong indication that the North Korean leader has no interest in engaging with diplomacy with South Korea or the United States.

Kim and Putin, who had held bilateral summits, have deepened military ties, with Pyongyang sending its troops and weapons to help Moscow’s war against Ukraine, Yonhap news agency reported.

The North’s state media showed that Kim finalized his troop deployment decision on August 28 last year.

According to Russian media, Kim, Putin and Xi will attend the military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on September 3.

Citing a Kremlin official, the Russian report said Kim will be seated on Xi’s left, while Putin will be seated to the right of Xi.

It will take about 20 hours if Kim chooses to take a special train to visit China.

Some analysts in South Korea said Kim is more likely to use his forest green train than “Chammae-1,” the private plane Kim reportedly used for long-distance domestic trips in his early years in office.

In a 2023 speech, Kim referred to a “new Cold War” gaining traction and stressed the country’s intent for “anti-US solidarity,” hinting at diplomatic efforts to balance against the US and its allies.

Experts also assessed that North Korea appears to have chosen Kim’s trip to China as part of efforts to mend frayed ties with Beijing in anticipation of the Russia-Ukraine war’s conclusion, which could shift Moscow’s focus westward.

Since last year, Pyongyang has rapidly aligned with Moscow, sending troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine, and turning to Russia as its main supplier of rare resources and assistance.

The Pyongyang-Moscow alignment has strained the regime’s ties with Beijing, but North Korea and China have recently shown signs of improving relations, with Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the North’s parliamentary standing committee, attending a recent reception hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang to celebrate the anniversary.

Analysts also suggest that Kim may have opted to attend the military parade to leverage North Korea’s closer relations with China to strengthen its bargaining position ahead of a potential resumption of negotiations with the US.

“Kim’s trip implies his intent to use it as an opportunity to further strengthen North Korea-China, North Korea-Russia and North Korea-China-Russia solidarity to counter” Western countries at a time all three countries are under their sanctions, said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.