Kim Jong Un enters China for Beijing parade, set to join Xi and Putin

A train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un crossed into China early Tuesday, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, which cited Pyongyang’s state-run radio.

The visit is one of Kim’s rare trips abroad and comes ahead of a major military parade in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.

Kim is among 26 heads of state expected to attend, alongside China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. 

If confirmed, it will be the first time the three leaders appear together at an international event.

On Monday, Xi and Putin used a meeting of Eurasian leaders in Tianjin to criticise the West, while promoting the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a regional alternative to Western-led alliances. 

Analysts say Kim’s presence will publicly underscore the strengthening of a China-Russia-North Korea alignment.

Kim briefly enjoyed global attention from 2018, holding summits with then-US president Donald Trump and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in, but retreated from international diplomacy after the failed Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi in 2019. 

He remained isolated during the Covid-19 pandemic, resurfacing on the world stage with a 2023 meeting with Putin in Russia’s Far East.