Beijing: North Korean Premier Pak Thae-song arrived in Beijing on Friday to attend an event marking the 65th anniversary of the signing of a friendship treaty between North Korea and China. According to China's Xinhua News Agency, Pak is leading a North Korean party and government delegation that will visit China until Sunday. This visit is at the invitation of China's Communist Party to commemorate the anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, originally signed on July 11, 1961, by the late North Korean founder Kim Il-sung and former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang's state media, had reported on Pak's planned visit to Beijing a day before his arrival, though it did not provide a detailed schedule. Last month, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping held summit talks in Pyongyang, where they pledged to strengthen bilateral ties through expanded exchanges across multiple sectors. This includes cooperation in areas ranging from economy to culture and more frequent high-level visits.
During the summit, Xi underscored the importance of marking the anniversary, sparking speculation about a large-scale event being organized by the two countries. In socialist nations like North Korea and China, anniversaries that fall on five- or 10-year intervals are significant and are typically celebrated with grand events. High-level official visits and exchanges of congratulatory messages had been widely anticipated in this context.
South Korea's unification ministry announced earlier in the day that it would "closely monitor" developments in Beijing. According to the ministry, this visit marks the first time in seven years that a North Korean government delegation has been sent to Beijing for the treaty's anniversary. The ministry also highlighted that North Korea has elevated the rank of its chief delegate to premier this year, compared to the vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly back in 2019.