China's Xi meets North Korea's premier ahead of treaty anniversary

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with North Korean Premier Pak Thae Song in Beijing, marking a significant diplomatic engagement between the two nations after a warming of ties.

China's ​President Xi Jinping met with North Korea's ​Premier Pak Thae Song in ‌Beijing on Friday, ​Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Pak arrived in Beijing earlier on Friday for a three-day visit and will attend an event ‌marking the 65th anniversary of the neighbours' friendship treaty, Beijing said. The visit comes a month after Xi travelled to Pyongyang for hisfirst visit to North Korea in seven years, where he ‌and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to expand cooperation across politics, economy and ‌culture.

Signed on July 11, 1961, the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance remains China's only active mutual defence pact. Ties between Beijing and Pyongyang have warmed markedly since late 2025, with the two sides stepping up diplomatic engagement ⁠and ​resuming passenger train services ⁠and direct flights between their capitals.

Pak, 70, became North Korea's premier in December 2024, rising to the head of ⁠cabinet after a long career in the ruling Workers' Party, initially specializing in propaganda and party disciplinary ​functions, then working in various posts on industrial, science and education policies. A longstanding member ⁠of Kim's inner circle, Pak has worked closely with the North Korean leader since the early years of his ⁠rule ​after Kim took power in 2011, and likely before that when he was being groomed as successor.

Pak was briefly sidelined in the early 2020s for reasons not officially explained, ⁠when North Korea imposed some of the world's strictest COVID-19 lockdown measures. Pak is known to ⁠have travelled abroad only ⁠on a few occasions, mostly in 2018 and 2019, to China and Russia. In October 2019, he visited Moscow as head of the ‌Supreme People's Assembly.