Xi’s latest message to North Korea’s Kim hints at cooling ties

Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to strengthen “strategic communication” with North Korea in a message to the North’s leader Kim Jong Un on the anniversary of the regime’s founding, the North’s state media reported.

But Xi, in his first message to Kim in eight months, appeared slightly less effusive in his tone on the friendship between China and North Korea than he did last year. 

“We will deepen strategic communication and strengthen cooperation with the North in a bid to further consolidate and develop the friendly ties between the two,” said Xi, as cited by the Korean Central News Agency, adding that China would continue to develop traditional relations with North Korea from a strategic and long-term perspective.

While North Korea and Russia have grown closer since the war in Ukraine, relations between China and North Korea have been cooler than in previous years.

Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met twice in less than a year but Xi has sent only two ceremonial congratulatory messages, including a New Year’s greeting in January. 

Xi’s latest message to Kim contained fewer references to their countries’ friendship compared with last year.

For instance, in last year’s message, Xi stressed the importance of his meetings with Kim, saying it was China’s unwavering stance to safeguard, promote and develop the tradition of friendship and cooperation between the nations no matter how the international and regional situation changed. 

That message did not appear this time.

Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, founded North Korea on Sept. 9, 1948.

Message from Cuban leader

Kim Jong Un also received a congratulatory message on the anniversary from Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, KCNA reported. 

“We are highly appreciating our relations with the DPRK that are based on brotherly ties and historical foundations,” Diaz-Canel said, expressing his willingness to strengthen close solidarity with the North.

The DPRK, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is North Korea’s official name. 

Since North Korea and Cuba established diplomatic relations in 1960, the two Cold War-era allies have maintained close ties and deepened exchanges based on their shared anti-U.S. and anti-imperialist stance.

But Seoul and Havana forged formal ties in February, delivering what was widely seen as a setback to Pyongyang, which has long boasted about its brotherly ties with the Caribbean country. South Korea did not have diplomatic ties with Cuba for 65 years.

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Since February, North Korea’s state-run media outlets have given only minimal coverage of Cuba.

For example, North Korea’s state media did not mention Cuba when it reported a list of countries that sent congratulatory messages over the 112th anniversary in April of the birth of the North’s late founder, Kim Il Sung.

At that time, it was widely suspected that North Korea intentionally omitted Cuba in a show of dissatisfaction over Cuba’s forging of diplomatic ties with South Korea.

Edited by Mike Firn.