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A train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un crossed into China early Tuesday, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing North Korea’s state radio. This is an uncommon journey outside North Korea for Kim, who is among 26 world leaders expected to attend a military parade in Beijing commemorating the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. If everything goes as scheduled, this visit will mark the first time Kim, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping appear together at the same event.
On Monday, Xi and Putin exchanged criticisms of the West at a summit of Eurasian leaders in Tianjin, located south of Beijing. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) promotes itself as a non-Western coalition of ten regional countries, aiming to provide an alternative to traditional alliances. Soo Kim, a geopolitical risk analyst and a former CIA operative, noted that Kim’s participation “solidifies the China-Russia-North Korea trilateral relationship” in the public eye.
Kim experienced a period of intense international diplomacy around 2018, with several meetings involving then-U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. However, after the Hanoi summit with Trump in 2019 broke down, Kim retreated from the global stage. He remained in North Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic but met with Putin in Russia’s Far East in 2023.
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