Kim Jong Un shows off tighter ties with allies, arms before Trump’s China trip

SEOUL – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is showcasing his tighter ties with old allies and battlefield lessons from Ukraine, as he positions North Korea as a strong nuclear power before US President Donald Trump’s trip to China.

After three days of back-to-back missile tests, including purported cluster munitions plus a bomb for targeting enemy electric grids, North Korea is hosting China’s top diplomat for the first time in six years.

This comes months after Mr Kim stood beside Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at a military parade in Beijing, for what Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi billed as a “historic meeting”.

On April 10, Mr Kim and Mr Wang reaffirmed close bilateral ties in their discussions in Pyongyang, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.

The North Korean leader stressed the need for broader contact to protect the two countries’ shared strategic interests, while China’s Foreign Minister highlighted Beijing’s commitment to advancing relations under the 2025 agreement, KCNA said. 

Rail links and Air China flights between Beijing and Pyongyang resumed in 2026, with analysts speculating this could pave the way for a future return of Chinese tourists to North Korea, which would give Mr Kim another source of hard currency.

Mr Kim’s flurry of diplomacy – and weapons tests – come as Mr Trump gears up to travel to China for the first visit of a sitting US president in nearly a decade.

South Korea has been trying to encourage a meeting between the US and North Korean leaders around that mid-May trip, already delayed once by the Iran war.

It is unclear, however, whether either side is open to the idea.

“North Korea now has a battle-forged alliance with Russia, and China continues to stand behind the regime,” said researcher Doo Jin-ho at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.

“It’s no longer the country it once was – and is much harder for the US to deal with.”  

Washington has also shifted its approach. Since returning to the White House, Mr Trump has directed America’s military might at US adversaries – and sometimes their weapons ambitions.

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was snatched from his home by US forces in January, while much of Iran’s senior leadership has been wiped out as Mr Trump tries to end the country’s nuclear weapons programme.

Mr Trump and Mr Kim met three times during the US President’s first term, as the Republican leader worked to convince the North Korean leader to scale back his nuclear programme – an effort that ultimately failed.

Despite that, Mr Trump has said he gets along with Mr Kim “very well” and would be available for another meeting.

Bolstered by growing military ties with Russia – and now closer relations with Beijing – Mr Kim has asked Washington to recognise it as a nuclear power for any dialogue to begin. 

“Wang Yi might ask if his boss can pass any messages from Kim to Trump,” said Dr John Delury, a senior fellow at the Asia Society. “He might also want to get a sense of Kim’s appetite for another summit.”

Mr Wang’s trip marks the latest in North Korea’s broader efforts to bolster overseas ties after years of isolation and sanctions.

Weeks earlier, Mr Kim hosted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Pyongyang and signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation. 

Mr Lukashenko and Mr Kim are allies in Mr Putin’s war against Ukraine. North Korea provided artillery ammunition, missiles and soldiers, while Belarus served as a launchpad for Russia’s full-scale invasion in the neighbouring nation four years ago. 

Although diplomatically solid, the Russia relationship appears to have cooled a bit in recent months, said Leiden University professor and Crisis Group analyst Christopher Green.

It is “natural Kim would rebalance, seeking to maintain as diversified a range of partners and income sources as he can within the limits of North Korea’s capabilities”, he added.

The experience gained by North Korea in the Russian conflict with Ukraine is helping it to modernise its military, including by incorporating drone intelligence directly into artillery firing systems and creating smaller, more nimble infantry units instead of large-scale battalions, Mr John Hemmings, director of the National Security Centre at the Henry Jackson Society, wrote in a recent commentary. 

Pyongyang is also attaching growing importance to AI, anti-satellite weapons and electronic warfare. 

The upshot, Mr Hemmings said, is that the Korean People’s Army “is significantly more dangerous than the one that existed just two years ago”. BLOOMBERG