SEOUL: China's President Xi Jinping hailed an "invincible friendship" with Pyongyang as he arrived in North Korea Monday, his first trip abroad this year after hosting back-to-back summits in Beijing.
China has been North Korea's main trading partner by far for decades and a key source of diplomatic and economic support for the country hit by multiple international sanctions.
Military officers lined a red carpet as an Air China plane carrying Xi arrived for his first visit since 2019, video from Xinhua showed.
A banner that read "We warmly welcome Comrade Xi Jinping" and hailing the two countries' "unbreakable friendship" hung below Chinese and North Korean flags at the airport.
Xi made the trip after hosting US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin separately in Beijing, and as North Korea's nuclear talks with Washington remain deadlocked.
'Shared goal'
The White House said last month that Xi and Trump "confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea" during their summit in Beijing.
However, leader Kim Jong Un's powerful sister said on the eve of Xi's arrival that North Korea's nuclear weapons program was "the line of no retreat".
North Korea has repeatedly declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear state since Kim and Trump's 2019 summit collapsed over the scope of denuclearization and sanctions relief.
In an article published on the front page of North Korea's Rodong Sinmun, Xi pledged closer cooperation.
"No matter how the times change or how the international situation evolves, the traditional friendship between China and North Korea is always invincible," Xi wrote.
Xi last met Kim in September, when he invited the North Korean leader and Putin to a military parade in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
North Korea is also the only country with an official, binding military alliance with China.
