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Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin to stand together at Tiananmen

Published: 01 Sep. 2025, 00:01 Updated: 01 Sep. 2025, 16:24

Choi Hoon

The author is the senior columnist at the JoongAng Ilbo.

When the military parade opens at Tiananmen Square this week, Kim Jong-un of North Korea, Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia will stand together on the reviewing stand. It will mark the first joint appearance of the three leaders.

Ten years ago, the position beside Xi was occupied by Park Geun-hye, then president of Korea. Putin stood next to her, while Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao flanked the other side. China accorded Park a place of honor, while Choe Ryong-hae, then North Korea’s second-ranking official, was pushed to the far end. By contrast, when Kim Il Sung, founder of North Korea, visited in 1954, he was photographed smiling next to Mao Zedong, a tableau symbolizing the “blood alliance” of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a reception on Victory Day marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 9. REUTERS/YONHAP

According to Xinhua News Agency, Beijing will place Kim Jong-un to Xi’s immediate left this year, with Putin to the right. In the protocol of “Kremlinology,” the right-hand seat of the host is most prestigious. For Pyongyang, standing directly next to Xi represents the highest recognition. The arrangement also raises questions about where Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, ranked second in Seoul’s political hierarchy, will stand.

The broader context is the transformation of the global order that has displaced Park Geun-hye with Kim Jong-un a decade later. Three forces underpin the shift: U.S.–China strategic rivalry, the war in Ukraine and the America-first policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, criticized by North Korea, China and Russia as unilateralism. Relationships that once moved separately — Pyongyang with Beijing, Pyongyang with Moscow, Beijing with Moscow — have converged into one stream of “shared interests.” Tiananmen will display that confluence.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, waves to Pyongyang citizens during his visit to the North Korean capital, accompanied by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, at the May Day Stadium on June 20, 2019. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

North Korea’s ties with China cooled after Pyongyang’s third nuclear test in 2013, which prompted Beijing to join sanctions. Pyongyang accused Beijing of betrayal. Later that year, Jang Song-thaek, regarded as China’s closest ally in Pyongyang, was executed. Xi visited Seoul before visiting Pyongyang, and Choe Ryong-hae was again marginalized in Beijing’s ceremonies. By 2016, Seoul’s decision to deploy the U.S.-led antimissile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system chilled Korea–China ties as well.

Kim Jong-un first visited Xi in 2018, carrying a large celadon vase, just before meeting Trump in Singapore. As Washington ramped up pressure on Beijing, Xi reconsidered North Korea’s strategic value as a counterbalance. After the failed Hanoi summit between Kim Jong-un and Trump, Beijing tolerated renewed North Korean missile launches and joined Moscow in blocking further United Nations sanctions. North Korea’s dispatch of troops to Ukraine has also been met with studied silence from China. When Xi secured a third term, Kim Jong-un was the first foreign leader to send congratulations.

The timing of Kim’s current invitation is notable. During his recent trip to Washington, President Lee Jae Myung declared that Seoul could no longer pursue “security with the United States and economy with China.” China’s Global Times denounced the comment as subservience to America. Against that backdrop, Kim’s trip to Beijing enhances his leverage in dealings with Trump, giving him greater flexibility by playing China and Russia against the United States.

North Korea’s relationship with Russia has become even closer. Some analysts call Pyongyang the greatest beneficiary of Russia's war against Ukraine. In exchange for munitions and troops, North Korea has gained advanced weapons and vital supplies. Though estranged after nuclear tests, ties were revived last year when Putin visited Pyongyang for the first time in 24 years and signed a new treaty restoring military obligations. A month earlier, Putin and Xi had proclaimed a “no limits partnership.” At the time, the U.S. State Department warned China not to “have it both ways.” Months later, North Korea’s troop deployment to Ukraine raised suspicions that Beijing had tacitly allowed it, recalling how Kim Il Sung once secured Soviet and Chinese backing for the invasion of 1950.

China and Russia have long been wary partners, sometimes rivals, over Eurasian influence. Border disputes and competition between Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative and Moscow’s Eurasian Economic Union reflected that. But the sharpening of U.S.–China rivalry and NATO’s eastward push since 2018, followed by the war against Ukraine, have turned them into economic partners against a common adversary. Bilateral trade reached $245 billion last year, up 66 percent from three years earlier. China’s purchases of Russian oil surged 54 percent, making Russia its top supplier ahead of Saudi Arabia.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, and invited dignitaries arrive on the balcony of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing to watch a parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II on Sept. 3, 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin is on the left, and then Korean President Park Geun-hye is on the right. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

The convergence of Kim Jong-un, Putin and Xi reflects shared traits: nuclear weapons, authoritarian leadership, economic interdependence and anti-American sentiment. Their solidarity could trigger a new Cold War. For the West, Napoleon’s maxim — “Divide the strong enemy and defeat it” — comes to mind. If the three tighten their unity, Korea’s diplomatic options will narrow further. Denuclearization, sanctions relief and peace negotiations could all become empty rhetoric.

For Seoul, the only path is to reinforce the U.S. alliance and expand security cooperation with Japan while limiting provocations toward China and Russia to hedge against deeper North Korea ties. The leader who may watch Tiananmen most closely, however, is Trump. His substitution of money and business for shared democratic values has left scars on U.S. alliances. Freedom and democracy, after all, are not secured by money alone.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.