North Korea calls Xi Jinping’s visit a “diplomatic victory”

North Korean authorities have reportedly issued directives on follow-up measures after touting Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the country as a “diplomatic victory.”

According to a source in Pyongyang who spoke to Daily NK, a directive issued in the name of the Workers’ Party Central Committee Secretariat, the body that handles the party’s day-to-day administrative affairs, on June 10, immediately after Xi’s visit, was quickly disseminated to party organizations at every level.

The directive stated that Kim Jong Un, president of the State Affairs Commission, received Xi with the highest honors on his first visit to Pyongyang in seven years, and that the two leaders signed a concrete agreement, going beyond mere diplomatic rhetoric, to strengthen substantive cooperation in areas including the economy and the military during a summit held immediately afterward.

It also said the two leaders declared a new milestone in a strategic partnership, describing the visit as having solidified the blood ties forged by their predecessors, and calling it a great diplomatic victory that crushes what it called the vicious isolation and suffocation schemes of American imperialism and its followers, a standard propaganda term North Korea uses to refer to the United States and its allies.

The directive also noted that China had promised large-scale food and energy assistance, stating that Pyongyang had received an implicit guarantee from China that it would open up economic avenues by circumventing the international community’s sanctions network on North Korea.

In connection with this, the directive ordered that transport capacity at Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport and the Sinuiju border crossing be operated at maximum capacity in order to quickly receive the large-scale aid China had agreed to provide.

“As soon as the directive came down, large transport planes and cargo trucks at Sunan Airport actually started moving busily, and customs officials and soldiers went into an emergency duty posture,” the source said.

Behind the diplomatic victory, a warning on self-reliance

Meanwhile, the directive reportedly also clearly included a warning passage stating that officials must not grow complacent over the historic achievement of the North Korea-China summit, must thoroughly reject any dependent mindset that relies solely on Chinese aid, and must raise the banner of self-reliance even higher.

The directive is also said to have included instructions to thoroughly monitor and control trends in public ideology.

According to the source, an unprecedented sense of excitement has been detected among officials in Pyongyang since the directive came down.

“Since the leader of a major country like China set foot in Pyongyang himself, people are filled with strong expectations that the problem of feeding the population might finally ease up a little,” he said. “There’s also talk that, starting with this visit, international sanctions could be effectively neutralized, and that if large quantities of rice and oil come in, rice prices could drop right away in jangmadang, the informal markets where most North Koreans buy daily necessities, and idle factories could start running again.”

The source added, however, that some have also cautiously voiced concern that economic dependence on China could deepen further.

Read in Korean

A Note to Readers