Kim’s talks with Xi ‘carry great significance,’ Chinese Foreign Ministry says

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of festivities commemorating the end of World War II, state media reported yesterday.

Kim attended a Chinese military parade in Beijing a day earlier, alongside other foreign leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim is making a rare trip outside North Korea.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said that the two leaders would conduct in-depth exchanges of views on bilateral relations and issues of mutual concern.

He said that Kim’s attendance at the parade and the talks with Xi “carry great significance.”

The North Korean leader, who arrived in Beijing by train on Tuesday, was among 26 foreign leaders who watched the parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. It was the first time that he joined an event with a large group of world leaders since taking office in late 2011.

Experts say Kim likely hopes to restore ties with China, North Korea’s biggest trading partner and aid provider, as there have been questions about the bilateral relationship.

In recent years, Kim’s foreign policy has focused heavily on Russia. He has sent combat troops and ammunition to back Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in return for economic and military assistance. At a meeting with Kim in Beijing after the parade, Putin praised the bravery of North Korean soldiers in the fighting.

But experts say that Kim would feel the need to prepare for the possible end of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Some observers say Kim’s trip could also be meant to increase leverage in potential talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly expressed his hopes to resume diplomacy between the two countries.

China, which is North Korea’s biggest trading partner and main provider of aid, wants its neighbor to return to negotiation and give up its nuclear weapons development.

North Korea has reached out to Russia, raising some concern in Beijing, which has long been North Korea’s most important ally.

The joint appearance of Kim, Xi and Putin at the parade has sparked speculation about a joint effort to push back at U.S. pressure on their three countries. Trump said as much in a social media post, telling Xi to give his warmest regards to Putin and Kim “as you conspire against The United States of America.”

Putin dismissed that idea at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday, saying no one has expressed anything negative about the Trump administration during his trip to China.

“The President of the United States is not without a sense of humor,” he said.

Though China, North Korea and Russia are embroiled in separate confrontations with the U.S., they haven’t formed a clear three-way alliance so far.

Zhu Feng, the dean of Nanjing University’s School of International Relations, said that “ganging up” with North Korea would damage China’s image, because the former is the most closed and authoritarian country in the world.

“It should not be overinterpreted that China-North Korea-Russia relations would see reinforcement,” he said. KEN MORITSUGU, BEIJING, MDT/AP