Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged mutual support and enhanced cooperation during talks in Beijing on the sidelines of festivities commemorating the end of the second World War, state media said Thursday (September 4, 2025).

Mr. Xi and Mr. Kim, along with top officials from their countries, met at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People a day after Mr. Kim attended a Chinese military parade alongside other foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Kim is making a rare trip outside North Korea.

Mr. Xi highlighted the “traditional friendship” between China and North Korea and pledged to consolidate and boost relations, according to a readout of their statements published by state broadcaster CCTV.

“This position will not change regardless of how the international situation evolves,” Mr. Xi told Mr. Kim, according to CCTV.

China has been North Korea’s biggest trading partner and aid provider, though questions have lingered about the strength of their bilateral relationship.

In recent years, Mr. 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 Mr. Kim in Beijing after the parade, Mr. Putin praised the bravery of North Korean soldiers in the fighting.

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

Mr. Kim, on his first visit to China in six years, brought his young daughter, adding to speculation that she’s being primed as the country’s next leader.

On Wednesday (September 3, 2025), he joined 26 foreign leaders who watched the parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. It was the first time that Kim had joined an event with a large group of world leaders since taking office in late 2011.

During his meeting with Mr. Xi, Mr. Kim lauded the “friendly feelings” between North Korea and China, which he pledged would persist “regardless of how the international situation changes.”

Mr. Kim said North Korea was ready to boost exchanges with China at all levels and “deepen mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation,” according to CCTV.

North Korea’s economy has been suffering under heavy U.S. sanctions tied to Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons. Some observers say Mr. 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 is believed to want its neighbour to return to negotiation and give up its nuclear weapons development.

North Korea’s more recent closer ties with Russia have raised some concern in Beijing, which has long been Pyongyang’s most important ally.

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

Mr. Putin dismissed that idea at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday (September 3, 2025), 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 humour,” he said.

Although 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.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that China’s “beautiful ceremony” marking the end of World War Two should have highlighted the role that the U.S. played in Japan’s defeat.

“I thought it was a beautiful ceremony. I thought it was very, very impressive,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, hours after he suggested on social media that foreign leaders meeting in Beijing might be conspiring against the U.S.

“I watched the speech last night. President Xi is a friend of mine, but I thought that the United States should have been mentioned last night during that speech, because we helped China very, very much.”

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has made the 80th anniversary of the war’s end a major showcase for his government and its close ties with countries at odds with Washington.

Flanked by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Mr. Xi spoke before a crowd of more than 50,000 spectators at Tiananmen Square. He surveyed a parade of goose-stepping troops and cutting-edge military equipment aimed at deterring would-be adversaries including the United States.

Japan’s invasion of China in 1937 was a major escalation in fighting that would lead to World War Two, and Japan’s surrender in 1945 marked the end of the conflict. The U.S. joined the war in 1941, aiding Chinese forces fighting the Japanese military and playing a decisive role in Japan’s defeat.

Deploying history to wage present-day political battles, Mr. Xi has cast World War Two as a major turning point in the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” now ruled by his Chinese Communist Party, and its allies.

On Wednesday, Mr. Xi thanked “the foreign governments and international friends who supported and assisted the Chinese people,” according to an official. But he did not dwell on the role of the United States in the war.

U.S.-China relations

U.S.-China relations are at a tense moment. The two sides are at odds on a range of security issues, from Ukraine to the South China Sea, and are wrangling over a broad trade deal to stave off tariffs on each other’s goods.

But Mr. Trump has repeatedly touted a positive personal relationship with Mr. Xi that his aides say can steer the world’s two largest economies in a constructive direction. He has also said he might soon meet with Mr. Xi.

In a post directed at Mr. Xi on Truth Social as the parade kicked off, Mr. Trump said, “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States of America.”

The Kremlin said they were not conspiring and suggested the remarks were ironic.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un brought his teenage daughter to Beijing this week in her first public outing overseas, fuelling further speculation that she may be his potential successor in the family’s dynastic rule over the nuclear-armed state.

Secretive North Korea has never revealed her name or age, but South Korean intelligence officials believe she is the daughter identified as Ju Ae by former American basketball player Dennis Rodman. Rodman spent time with Kim’s family in 2013 and described holding her as a baby.

She was seen just behind her father as they stepped off the armoured train they used to travel overnight from Pyongyang to the Chinese capital Beijing, where Kim Jong Un attended a massive military parade on Wednesday (September 3, 2025) staged by China to commemorate Japan’s surrender ending World War Two in the Pacific.

“Right now, Ju Ae is the front runner as next supreme leader of North Korea,” said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the U.S.-based Stimson Center. “She is getting practical protocol experience which should serve her well as North Korea’s next leader or a core elite.”

It is the first time she has accompanied Kim Jong Un outside North Korea — an experience that neither her father nor powerful aunt ever had, Mr. Madden said.

“She is getting valuable experience greeting and interacting with foreign leadership and other elites,” he said.

Analysts said there is no evidence Kim Jong Un ever accompanied his father, Kim Jong Il, on overseas trips. Jong Il did make foreign trips in the 1950s with his father, North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung.

North Korea’s tightly controlled state media had revealed nothing about Kim Jong Un’s children until Ju Ae was first shown to the world accompanying her father to the launch of a massive intercontinental ballistic missile in 2022.

There is still little known about other Kim children.

Likely successor

South Korea’s intelligence agency considers Ju Ae to be the most likely successor so far, despite questions over whether she can ultimately rise to the top of the male-dominated dynasty.

Estimated to be about 13 years old, Ju Ae has attended increasingly high-profile events, including her diplomatic debut at a Russian Embassy event in May.

“The scope of her public appearances certainly has expanded from military-related sites to political and economic events over the years,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee, another researcher with the Stimson Center. “If this is part of a succession campaign, this would certainly help with that effort as it would be seen as Kim Ju Ae’s debut on the international stage.”

While it’s premature to say conclusively whether this visit means she is Kim Jong Un’s successor, it could still help broaden her horizons, said Lee, adding that how the North Korean media covers Ju Ae in China would give better insight.