SEOUL:&nbsp;China&#39;s President Xi Jinping hailed an &quot;invincible friendship&quot; 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&#39;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 &quot;We warmly welcome Comrade Xi Jinping&quot; and hailing the two countries&#39; &quot;unbreakable friendship&quot; hung below Chinese and North Korean flags at the airport. Xi made the trip after hosting US President Donald Trump and Russia&#39;s Vladimir Putin separately in Beijing, and as North Korea&#39;s nuclear talks with Washington remain deadlocked. &#39;Shared goal&#39;&nbsp;The White House said last month that Xi and Trump &quot;confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea&quot; during their summit in Beijing. However, leader Kim Jong Un&#39;s powerful sister said on the eve of Xi&#39;s arrival that North Korea&#39;s nuclear weapons program was &quot;the line of no retreat&quot;. North Korea has repeatedly declared itself an &quot;irreversible&quot; nuclear state since Kim and Trump&#39;s 2019 summit collapsed over the scope of denuclearization and sanctions relief. In an article published on the front page of North Korea&#39;s Rodong Sinmun, Xi pledged closer cooperation. &quot;No matter how the times change or how the international situation evolves, the traditional friendship between China and North Korea is always invincible,&quot; 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.

This picture taken on September 4, 2025 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on September 5, 2025 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. China's leader Xi

Asia

Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting North Korea to strengthen ties with Kim Jong Un, highlighting their 'invincible friendship'.

China's Xi lands in North Korea for rare visit

BEIJING: President Donald Trump said he had made &quot;fantastic trade deals&quot; with China&#39;s Xi Jinping, as the pair met on Friday at final talks of a superpower summit that according to the US leader has also reaped a Chinese offer to help open the Strait of Hormuz. Trump had arrived in Beijing seeking to seal deals in sectors including agriculture, aviation and artificial intelligence, as well as to contain differences between the two sides in a number of tense geostrategic areas -- not least the Middle East war. Trump&#39;s overtures to Xi, whom he described as a &quot;great leader&quot; and &quot;friend&quot;, have so far been met with more muted tones by the Chinese leader. But the US leader said &quot;a lot of good&quot; has come out of the visit. &quot;We&#39;ve made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries,&quot; he said after a walk with Xi among the rosebushes in the gardens of Zhongnanhai, a central leadership compound next to Beijing&#39;s Forbidden City. &quot;We&#39;ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn&#39;t have been able to solve,&quot; he added, without providing details. Xi said it was a &quot;milestone visit&quot;, and that the two sides had to date established &quot;a new bilateral relationship, which is a relationship of constructive strategic stability&quot;. He promised to send Trump seeds for the White House Rose Garden. &#39;Help on Hormuz&#39;&nbsp;In an interview with Fox News after the first day of the summit wrapped, Trump said Xi had agreed to several US wish list points. On the topic of the war in Iran, the US president said Xi had effectively assured his counterpart that China was not preparing to militarily aid Tehran, which has essentially closed the Strait of Hormuz. &quot;He said he&#39;s not going to give military equipment... he said that strongly,&quot; Trump told Fox. &quot;He&#39;d like to see the Hormuz Strait open, and said &#39;if I can be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help,&#39;&quot; Trump added. Asked whether the two leaders had discussed Iran, the Chinese foreign ministry on Friday released a statement calling for &quot;a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire&quot;. &quot;Shipping lanes should be reopened as soon as possible in response to the calls of the international community,&quot; it added. Boeing, oil, soybeans&nbsp;Trump did not spell out on Friday the trade agreements that he said had been sealed with China. However, in the Fox interview, Trump said one big business deal struck involved Xi agreeing to purchase &quot;200 big&quot; Boeing jets. Shares of the US aviation giant fell after Trump&#39;s comments, in a sign the market had expected a more robust purchase from China. The US president also said Beijing had also voiced interest in buying US oil and soybeans. And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that Trump and Xi were talking about setting up &quot;guardrails&quot; for the use of artificial intelligence. Bessent said the world&#39;s &quot;two AI superpowers are going to start talking&quot;, though US export controls on the advanced technology to China remain a sore point in relations.

China

'We've made some fantastic trade deals, great for both countries,' he said after a walk with Xi among the rosebushes in the gardens of Zhongnanhai, a central leadership compound next to Beijing's Forbidden City.

Articles tagged with "China's Xi Jinping"

China's Xi lands in North Korea for rare visit

Trump says made 'fantastic trade deals' with Xi

China's Xi lands in North Korea for rare visit