Xi, Kim to jointly create ‘bright future’ of bilateral ties

TIL Desk/World/Pyongyang/ Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed here on Thursday to work together to create a bright future of inter-party and inter-state relations at a new starting point in history. Xi became the first Chinese head of state to visit Pyongyang in 14 years and the fifth since the two nations established diplomatic relations in 1949.

The Chinese President and his wife, Peng Liyuan, arrived at Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport earlier in the day and were greeted by the North’s leader and his wife, Ri Sol-ju. Close to 10,000 North Koreans waved flowers and chanted welcoming slogans at the airport, it said. Xi and Kim reviewed an honour guard, with the Chinese leader being greeted with a 21-gun salute.

The North’s military band performed the national anthems of the two countries. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of Pyongyang, waving flowers and the flags of both the countries and chanting slogans, such as “DPRK-China friendship”, as a motorcade carrying the two leaders in a roofless vehicle headed to central Pyongyang. The leaders later held summit talks.