Kim Jong Un backs China’s ‘multipolar world’ push as Wang Yi visit marks a new phase in North Korea ties

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used a high-level visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to signal that Pyongyang wants a more explicit strategic alignment with Beijing, not merely a ceremonial reaffirmation of an old alliance. State media in both countries said Kim backed China’s call for a more multipolar world, endorsed Beijing’s one-China position on Taiwan and argued that the relationship had become more important in the current geopolitical environment.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with Wang Yichannelnewsasia.com·SecondaryWang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Pyongyang, North Korea on Apr 10, 2026.

The meeting matters because it comes at a moment when North Korea has spent much of the past two years drawing closer to Russia, leading some observers to question whether Beijing had lost influence in Pyongyang. Instead, the Wang visit suggests Kim is trying to widen his diplomatic room, keep both major authoritarian partners engaged and present North Korea as part of a broader bloc resisting U.S.-led pressure rather than as a state dependent on a single patron.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with Wang Yichannelnewsasia.com·SecondaryWang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Pyongyang, North Korea on Apr 10, 2026.

According to the Korean Central News Agency account carried by AP and Channel NewsAsia, Kim told Wang on Friday that his government would fully support Chinese efforts to defend territorial integrity under the one-China principle. In practice, that language is a direct endorsement of Beijing’s position that Taiwan is part of China, and it places Pyongyang more openly on China’s side in one of the most sensitive disputes in East Asia. For Beijing, that public support from a treaty ally has symbolic value even if North Korea’s practical leverage over the Taiwan issue is limited.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with Wang Yichannelnewsasia.com·SecondaryWang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Pyongyang, North Korea on Apr 10, 2026.

Chinese readouts from the trip also pointed in the same direction. Wang said the relationship had entered a new phase after Kim’s summit last year with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and he urged stronger communication and coordination on major regional and international affairs. He also said China wanted to expand exchanges and practical cooperation with North Korea, language that usually points to a broader reopening of political, economic and transport links after the pandemic-era freeze.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with Wang Yichannelnewsasia.com·SecondaryWang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Pyongyang, North Korea on Apr 10, 2026.

That reopening is already visible. Both cluster sources note that China and North Korea resumed direct flights and passenger train services last month after years of interruption during the COVID period. Those steps do not by themselves amount to a dramatic alliance shift, but they show that the two governments are rebuilding the mechanics of routine state-to-state contact, which tends to precede more substantive economic and political coordination.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with Wang Yichannelnewsasia.com·SecondaryWang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Pyongyang, North Korea on Apr 10, 2026.

Kim’s broader strategy looks less ideological than transactional, even if both sides speak in ideological language. By embracing talk of a new Cold War and a multipolar world, he is trying to break out of isolation, raise North Korea’s diplomatic value and show Washington, Seoul and Tokyo that Pyongyang still has options. China, for its part, has reasons to stabilize its North Korea channel as competition with the United States sharpens and as uncertainty rises over how the Trump administration may handle both Taiwan and the Korean peninsula.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with Wang Yichannelnewsasia.com·SecondaryWang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Pyongyang, North Korea on Apr 10, 2026.

There is, however, another side to the story that deserves equal weight. Western and South Korean officials have long argued that closer China-North Korea coordination can reduce pressure on Pyongyang to negotiate over its nuclear program and can weaken the practical effect of sanctions. Critics of engagement with North Korea also say ceremonial phrases about peace and development often mask a simpler reality: Beijing wants to prevent instability on its border, while Pyongyang wants economic breathing room without giving up weapons or changing behavior in any fundamental way.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with Wang Yichannelnewsasia.com·SecondaryWang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Pyongyang, North Korea on Apr 10, 2026.

Official positions remain far apart. North Korean media said Kim continues to reject the U.S. demand that denuclearisation be a precondition for renewed talks, while AP reported that he has kept meaningful diplomacy with Washington and Seoul frozen since the collapse of his 2019 negotiations with Trump. At the same time, some South Korean officials still hope a rescheduled Trump-Xi meeting in May could create an opening for contact with Pyongyang, even if neither side offered evidence during Wang’s trip that such a channel is close to reopening.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with Wang Yichannelnewsasia.com·SecondaryWang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Pyongyang, North Korea on Apr 10, 2026.

That uncertainty is why the visit is more important than the slogans alone. A public North Korean endorsement of China’s geopolitical language, paired with resumed transport links and talk of deeper coordination, suggests Beijing is re-establishing a more active role in Pyongyang’s external strategy. It does not prove China controls North Korea, and it does not erase Kim’s parallel bet on Moscow, but it does show that the old China-North Korea axis is becoming more operational again after a period when Russia had captured most of the attention.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with Wang Yichannelnewsasia.com·SecondaryWang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Pyongyang, North Korea on Apr 10, 2026.

Another reason the meeting drew attention is its timing within a wider diplomatic calendar. Wang’s visit was his first trip to North Korea in seven years, according to the cluster reporting, and it came after Kim’s summit with Xi last year and after the restoration of transport links that had been frozen since the pandemic. That sequence makes the encounter look less like an isolated photo opportunity and more like part of a deliberate effort to normalize a relationship that had been functioning below its historical ceiling.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with Wang Yichannelnewsasia.com·SecondaryWang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Pyongyang, North Korea on Apr 10, 2026.

For regional governments, the central question is whether this renewed coordination remains defensive and symbolic or evolves into something more concrete. Japan, South Korea and the United States have to assume that tighter China-North Korea contacts could mean more diplomatic shielding for Pyongyang at exactly the moment when North Korea still refuses to re-enter serious denuclearisation talks on Washington’s terms. Beijing, however, can argue that maintaining channels with Pyongyang reduces the risk of miscalculation on China’s border and preserves leverage in any future crisis or negotiation.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with Wang Yichannelnewsasia.com·SecondaryWang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Pyongyang, North Korea on Apr 10, 2026.

What happens next will depend less on rhetoric than on whether this new phase produces tangible follow-through. If Beijing expands economic exchanges, political visits and diplomatic cover while Washington heads into a high-stakes summit season with China, the Korean peninsula could once again become part of a larger bargaining environment between major powers. If the visit proves mostly symbolic, then the headlines about a multipolar world will age quickly. For now, the safest conclusion is that Kim wanted to remind every capital in the region that North Korea is not diplomatically isolated, and that China was willing to help him make that point.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un backs China's push for ‘multipolar world’ in talks with Wang Yichannelnewsasia.com·SecondaryWang, on a two-day trip to North Korea, said the countries’ relations were entering a “new phase” following a summit last year between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un (right) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Pyongyang, North Korea on Apr 10, 2026.