North Korean leader Kim backs China's push for 'multipolar world' in talks with foreign minister

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un voiced support for China’s push to build a “multipolar world” and called for deeper ties between the traditional allies during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, state media said Saturday.

During the meeting Friday, Kim said his government will fully support Chinese efforts to achieve territorial integrity based on its “one-China principle,” a reference to Beijing’s official position that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, according to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency.

Kim also outlined North Korea’s position on unspecified regional and international issues of “mutual concern” and said sustained development of ties between the two countries has become more crucial in the current geopolitical environment, KCNA said.

Wang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Embracing the ideas of a “new Cold War” and a “multipolarized world,” Kim has sought to break out of international isolation and push a more assertive foreign policy by expanding ties with governments locked in confrontations with the United States.

While Russia has been Kim’s top foreign policy priority in recent years, sending thousands of troops and large weapons shipments to support its war against Ukraine, he has also been cozying up to China, the North’s traditional main ally and economic lifeline.

Kim joined Russian President Vladimir Putin at a World War II ceremony in Beijing in September and held his first summit with Xi Jinping in six years, moves that supported his efforts to portray North Korea as part of a united front against Washington.

North Korea and China last month resumed direct flight and passenger train services, which had been suspended since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Wang arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday in his first visit to North Korea in seven years. He earlier met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Sun Hui and discussed ways to facilitate further cooperation and exchanges and holding “in-depth” talks on international issues, state media from both countries said.

The state media outlets did not mention whether Wang and North Korean officials discussed issues related to the U.S. or the ongoing war in the Middle East.

Wang’s trip to North Korea came before U.S. President Donald Trump travels to Beijing for a rescheduled summit with Xi Jinping in May. Some South Korean officials have expressed hope the Trump-Xi meeting could provide a diplomatic opening with Pyongyang.

Kim has suspended all meaningful dialogue with the U.S. and South Korea since the collapse of his diplomacy with Trump in 2019 during the American president’s first term. Kim has since taken a hard-line stance toward South Korea, which he now defines as his “most hostile” adversary, and rejected U.S. offers to resume talks, calling on Washington to drop its demand for North Korea’s denuclearization as a precondition.