The North Korean leader will attend a military parade with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.
Posted on September 2, 2025
The train of the North Korean leader Kim Jong has crossed the border to China before his planned assistance to a military parade that marks the surrender of Japan in World War II, state media reported.
Kim is among the 26 world leaders scheduled to attend Wednesday's parade that commemorates the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The Beijing event will be the first time that Kim, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in the same place.
Kim's train crossed the North Korean border in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Rodong Sinmun newspaper controlled by the State reported.
“The senior key officials of the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea and the Government of the Democratic Popular Republic of Korea are accompanying Comrade Kim Jong one on their visit to the People's Republic of China,” said Rodong Sinmun, using the official name of North Korea.
Kim's visit to China arrives immediately after the summit of the Shanghai cooperation organization in the China Tianjin, in which Xi and Putin turn to criticize the western domain of the international order.
One of the most isolated states in the world, North Korea, has for a long time on China and Russia for economic and diplomatic support.
Pyongyang has grown especially near Moscow in recent years, sending thousands of troops to support Putin war in Ukraine.
Kim, who rarely travels abroad, has met with XI five times since he came to power in 2011, more recently in 2019, when the North Korean leader attended an event that commemorates the 70th anniversary of relations with China-North Korea.
Kim has known three times, more recently in June 2024, when the two leaders signed a mutual defense treaty in Pyongyang.
