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Mr. Kim’s presence at a Chinese military parade was a sign of his growing geopolitical leverage and that North Korea was being accepted as a de facto nuclear power.
Sept. 5, 2025, 1:35 a.m. ET
Before Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, arrived in Beijing this week on his personal train, he had held five summits with President Xi Jinping of China. Each time, their governments said, they talked about removing nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula.
But their latest round of bilateral talks, on Thursday, appeared to be different in one important way. There was no mention of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula when both governments announced the results of the summit meeting on Friday.
The glaring absence marked another diplomatic win for Mr. Kim. He has long insisted that North Korea, which has conducted six nuclear tests since 2006, be accepted as the world’s newest nuclear weapons power.
“China will not formally endorse North Korea as a nuclear power, but the latest meeting showed that it was no longer insisting on its denuclearization,” said Lee Byong-chul, an analyst at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul. “It’s huge progress for Kim Jong-un’s strategy of getting his nuclear arsenal accepted as a fait accompli.”
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Mr. Kim’s trip to Beijing this week highlighted his growing geopolitical value, which has helped persuade China and Russia to recognize North Korea as a de facto nuclear power, analysts said.
