TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ North Korean leader Kim Jong Un thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for his support in last week’s groundbreaking summit with President Donald Trump, the North’s official media reported today. Kim is in Beijing on his third visit to China this year, underscoring the major improvement in relations between the communist neighbors.
A report by the Korean News Agency said Kim expressed his gratitude to Xi in a meeting on Tuesday, during which Xi “gave high appreciation and extended heartfelt congratulations” to Kim over the summit.
Report said that during a banquet hosted by Xi, Kim also said Pyongyang and Beijing are seeing their ties develop into “unprecedentedly special relations.” At the summit with Trump in Singapore, Kim pledged to work toward denuclearization in exchange for U.S. security guarantees.
The US and South Korea suspended a major joint military exercise that was planned in August in what was seen as a major victory for North Korea and its chief allies, China and Russia. There was no official word on Kim’s activities on Wednesday, although South Korea’s news agency said his motorcade was seen at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing.
