The Chinese leader arrived to a red-carpet welcome from Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju, alongside a guard of honour, while children presented bouquets of flowers, video from Chinese state media showed.
A 21-gun salute was fired at the capital’s Kim Il Sung Square, a site of military parades and state celebrations, as spectators dwarfed by huge portraits of the leaders chanted slogans and released balloons, the Xinhua news agency said.
Ties were at a “new historical starting point”, Xi said earlier, before urging stronger exchanges in areas from diplomacy, law enforcement and the military to agriculture, trade, technology and construction.
“STRATEGIC ASSET”
Xi had called on Kim to “oppose hegemony, authoritarianism and all attempts and conspiracies to revive militarism that endanger regional security and stability” in remarks published in the North’s state media on Monday.
“The Xi-Kim summit is a reminder that Beijing still sees Pyongyang as a strategic asset,” said Craig Singleton, a senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
The neighbours, along with Russia and Iran, share an interest in blunting the United States’ power and straining its alliances, he added.
Xi also pledged to work with North Korea to promote fair and orderly multilateralism and inclusive economic globalisation, with long-term regional peace and stability a common pursuit.
“His visit is about keeping the tradition alive in very different conditions than his last trip,” John Delury, a senior fellow of the Asia Society, said in a post on X.