North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in China – Yonhap
This picture taken on September 1, 2025 and released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on September 2, 2025 shows North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un (L) as he departs from Pyongyang by special train to visit China. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was on his way to Beijing on on September 2, having crossed the border into China aboard an armored train ahead of a massive military parade on on September 3. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
SEOUL — A train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un passed into China early Tuesday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing the North’s state-run radio service.
It is a rare trip outside North Korea for Kim, who is one of 26 heads of state slated attend a military parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.
If it proceeds as planned, the diplomatic foray will mark the first time that Kim, Russia’s Vladmir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping appear at the same event.
READ: Kim Jong Un set for debut on multilateral diplomatic stage in China
On Monday, Xi and Putin took turns swiping at the West during a gathering of Eurasian leaders in Tianjin, just south of Beijing.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) touts itself as a non-Western style of collaboration between 10 countries in the region and seeks to be an alternative to traditional alliances.
Kim’s upcoming presence “formalizes the China-Russia-North Korea trilateral (relationship) to the public”, Soo Kim, a geopolitical risk consultant and former CIA analyst, told AFP.
READ: North Korea’s Kim inspects new missiles before China trip
Kim enjoyed a brief bout of high-profile international diplomacy from around 2018, meeting US President Donald Trump and then South Korean President Moon Jae-in multiple times.
But he withdrew from the global scene after the collapse of a summit with Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2019.
Kim stayed in North Korea throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, but met Putin in Russia’s far east in 2023. /dl
