North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed the blood alliance between North Korea and China during his latest visit to the country and pledged to carry forward the two nations' friendship.
The Korean Central News Agency reported on the 25th that Kim visited the Memorial Museum of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea in Dandong, Liaoning Province, the previous day, timed to the 76th anniversary of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army's entry into the Korean War. Wang Huning, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the fourth-ranking official in China's power hierarchy, greeted Kim. Wang Yi, director of the Communist Party's Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission and foreign minister, Liu Haixing, head of the party's International Liaison Department, and Ma Zhaoxu, vice minister of commerce, also welcomed the North Korean delegation.
Accompanying Kim were senior party and government officials including Jo Yong-won, secretary of the Workers' Party Central Committee, Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, secretaries Ri Il-hwan and Kim Song-nam, First Vice Premier Kim Tok-hun, General Affairs Department Director Kim Yo-jong and First Vice Department Director Kim Jae-ryong, as well as Ri Ryong-nam, North Korea's ambassador to China.
Kim laid a flower basket at the memorial tower bearing the inscription: "The martyrs of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army will be remembered forever. Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea." China marks Oct. 25, the date of its first victory in the Korean War, as the day of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.
Paying his respects before the tower, Kim said, "Our people will forever remember the glorious solidarity of fighting alongside the Chinese people," adding that "we will pass down through generations our eternal gratitude to the Chinese people, who aided our revolution with their blood." He also stressed "the will of our party, our government and our people to forever remember and uphold the splendid history of overcoming trials together, and to firmly carry forward the invincible Korea-China friendship forged in blood."
Kim also presented the museum with a commemorative plaque of photographs and documents of President Kim Il Sung. The plaque carries an inscription in Kim Il Sung's own handwriting: "In the canvas of great history, the righteous souls and spirit that defended peace are pulsating. We solemnly recall the footsteps of the martyrs of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, who linked the territories of the two countries into one mountain range, and offer our gratitude and respect."
In talks with Wang following the tour, Kim said that "recalling with reverence the great solidarity and history at the place from which the martyrs of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army set out is a natural duty and obligation," describing it as "a moment to engrave once again the preciousness of the Korea-China friendship forged in blood." He added that "we will never forget, for generations to come, the history in which the fine sons and daughters of the Chinese people aided our revolution with their blood," and said "we will steadily and firmly carry on the history of Korea-China friendship."
Kim also expressed gratitude to President Xi Jinping, adding that "the high international authority and dignity that the People's Republic of China holds today are the deserved result won by the Chinese people through struggle and effort under the wise leadership of the Communist Party of China with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core." Wang conveyed Xi's greetings to Kim and said in response that Kim's visit to the memorial museum "carries very significant meaning in continuously inheriting and developing the traditional China-Korea friendship and comradeship in arms."
A banquet welcoming Kim's visit followed, held on Xi's special instructions. Kim toured a bus plant in Dandong, encouraged workers there and then left China by way of the New Yalu River Bridge. Wang and central and local Chinese officials accompanied the delegation to the midpoint of the bridge to see them off.
Looking out over the view from the midpoint of the bridge, Kim voiced his expectation that "this bridge will without doubt carry out precisely its historic mission of linking the two countries and binding our hearts together even more firmly." The New Yalu River Bridge, which opened on the 15th, is expected to serve as a catalyst for expanding logistics between North Korea and China.
News of Kim's trip was carried not only by the Korean Central News Agency, an outlet aimed at external audiences, but also by Korean Central Broadcasting Station, the state radio service accessible to North Korean residents. The visit was Kim's first in one year and one month, following his attendance at China's Victory Day events in September last year, and the sixth since he took power. It was the first time Kim has traveled to China and returned without meeting Xi.
