SHIFTING MESSAGE: North Korea is today to convene a parliamentary session to discuss revising its constitution to abandon its long-held goal of peaceful unification

AP, SEOUL

The leaders of North Korea and China yesterday marked the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic relations by exchanging messages that expressed hopes for stronger ties, as outsiders raised questions about their relationship.

The message exchange came as North Korea and Russia have been sharply expanding their cooperation, while China apparently keeps its distance. Experts say that the level of exchanges and commemorative programs between North Korea and China in the coming months would provide a clue to the exact status of their ties.

In a message sent to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his government would “steadily strive to consolidate and develop the friendly and cooperative relations” between the two countries, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wave from an open top limousine as they travel along a street in Pyongyang on June 20, 2019.

Photo: Xinhua news agency via AP

Xi, in his message to Kim, said that China is ready to jointly promote “the stable and further advance of the socialist cause in the two countries,” KCNA said.

Since North Korea and China established diplomatic ties on Oct. 6, 1949, their relationship has often been described as being “as close as lips and teeth.”

China, North Korea’s biggest trading partner and main aid provider, has been suspected of avoiding fully implementing UN sanctions on North Korea and sending clandestine aid shipments to help its impoverished neighbor stay afloat and continue to serve as a bulwark against US influence on the Korean Peninsula.

Many observers say China is reluctant to form a three-way, anti-West alliance with North Korea and Russia as it prefers a stable regional security environment to tackle numerous economic challenges and maintain relationships with Europe and its Asian neighbors.

North Korea and Russia have moved significantly closer to each other amid widespread outside suspicions that North Korea has supplied conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance.

During a meeting in Pyongyang in June, Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a pact stipulating mutual military assistance if either country is attacked, in what was considered the two countries’ biggest defense deal since the end of the Cold War.

North Korea is locked in confrontations with the US, South Korea and their partners over its advancing nuclear program.

KCNA yesterday reported that Kim oversaw a live artillery firing drill by cadets of a military academy.

North Korea is expected to revise its constitution to abandon its long-held goal of peaceful unification with the South and to redefine the inter-Korean border, a move experts said could escalate tensions on the peninsula.

North Korea would convene a parliamentary session to discuss the amendment today.

In January, Kim called for changing the constitution to ensure that South Korea is seen as the “primary foe” and that North Korea should plan for “occupying, subjugating and reclaiming” South Korea in the event of a war.

There are concerns that North Korea would suggest that it would pursue unification by force, including nuclear weapons, under the revised constitution, said Lim Eul-chul, a professor of North Korea studies at Kyungnam University in Changwon, South Korea.0

The redefining of the inter-Korean territory also could be a “new flash point in disputes between the two Koreas,” he said.

Additional reporting by Reuters