July 11, 2021: The leaders of North Korea and China exchanged messages on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Cooperation, pledging to strengthen cooperation.
In a message to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his relationship with China in the face of hostile foreign forces was important, while Xi told North Korea’s KCNA news agency that cooperation will be taken to the a new level.
China has been North Korea’s only key ally since the two sides signed the agreement in 1961, and international sanctions on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs have allowed it to trade and other aid to Beijing. North Korea is now more dependent than it has ever been on China.
The friendship pact calls on the two countries to come to each other’s assistance should either side come under attack.
“Despite the unprecedentedly complicated international situation in recent years the comradely trust and militant friendship between the DPRK and China get stronger day by day,” Kim said in his message, KCNA reported, using the initials for North Korea’s official name.
The treaty is defending socialism and peace in Asia “now that the hostile forces become more desperate in their challenge and obstructive moves”, Kim said.
Xi’s message said he plans to provide greater happiness to the two countries and their people by strengthening communication with Kim and “by steadily leading the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries to a new stage”, KCNA said.
The China-North Korea treaty has a validity of 20 years and was renewed in 1981 and 2001 and its again expected to be renewed.
Xi and Kim’s exchange of messages is the latest sign of renewed ties between the neighbours, which analysts say is aimed at the United States amid gridlocked nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington and worsening US-Beijing tensions.
The two countries need each other to deal with Washington but according to Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean Studies at Ewha Womans University, “the two allies’ relations have had discord since the end of the Korean War, and they will “never really trust each other”.
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