Kim Jong Un returns to North Korea after a brief visit to the Chinese city

O north Korean leader Kim Jong Un returned to his country today after a visit to the Chinese border town of Dandong, where he met with Wang Huning, one of the leading leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.

According to official Chinese news agency Xinhua, Wang Huning conveyed to Kim Jong Un “the cordial greetings and best wishes of Chinese President Xi Jinping”, at a meeting where both approached economic cooperation and paid tribute to Chinese soldiers who died in the Korean War (1950–1953).

“ When Kim Jong Un left Dandong, Wang Huning accompanied him to the New Yalu River bridge between China and North Korea,” he added.

State agency Xinhua reported that Wang, a member of the Permanent Committee of the Politburo, the maximum body of power of the Communist Party of China (PCC), received Kim in Dandong, in the northeast Liaoning province.

Wang, considered the main ideologist of Chinese President Xi Jinping, led the reception, not having mentioned the presence of Prime Minister Li Qiang, which the South Korean media had previously reported, citing anonymous government sources.

During the meeting, Wang proposed to take advantage of the inauguration of the new bridge over the Yalu River, which links Dandong to the North Korean city of Sinuiju, to expand the trade and exchanges of people between both countries, although concrete agreements were not released.

The bridge was inaugurated on October 15, after almost 12 years of delays since its construction was completed in 2014, due to the lack of access roads and customs facilities on the North Korean side.

The infrastructure, financed by China, is about three kilometres long and four lanes long and is designed to facilitate road transport between the two countries, which share a border of more than 1,400 kilometres.

Kim and Wang paid tribute to the Chinese soldiers who died in the Korean War (1950–1953) and visited a car factory in Dandong, before the North Korean leader left China for the new border bridge, according to the agency, which also reported the participation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The visit takes place less than a month from the meeting in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, among US leaders, Donald Trump, Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the host, Xi Jinping, on the occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC).

Both Trump and Putin have been open in recent weeks to hold, in this context, together with Xi, a trilateral meeting to address the war in Ukraine, although it is also not ruled out that the US President will enjoy his trip to Asia for a potential meeting with Kim, with whom he has already met in Singapore in June 2018 during his first term.

However, international media, citing several sources with knowledge of the situation, published this week that both Washington and Seoul consider a meeting this year between Kim and Trump to be unlikely, so far the only US ruler who met with a leader from North Korea.

The last time Kim visited China was in September 2025, when the leader of this country met in Beijing with Xi, as part of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in the Pacific.