China-North Korea Relations Strengthened as Liaoning Cultural Delegation Visits Pyongyang

Korean Central News Agency reported on the 30th that a cultural delegation from Liaoning Province, led by the standing committee member (Publicity manager) of the Communist Party of China Liaoning Provincial Committee, arrived in Pyongyang on the 29th.

The visit aimed to participate in the 2024 North Korea-China Friendship Lunar New Year Event. However, it draws attention as it is a local government delegation’s visit amid the two countries’ ongoing diplomatic activities.

After North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Park Myong Ho visited China, leading a delegation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in December last year, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong visited Pyongyang on an invitation from North Korea on the 25th to 27th and met North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and Deputy Foreign Minister Park Myong Ho and had high-level meetings, including an agreement on the main schedule for the Year of North Korea-China Friendship, marking the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between North Korea and China.

Also, a North Korean Ministry of Physical Education delegation led by Minister of Physical Education Kim Il Kuk headed to China on the 27th.

The Liaoning Province cultural delegation began their stay in Pyongyang by laying flowers at the statues of the former late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on the Mansudae Hill after being greeted by Kim Kwang Il, vice-chairman of the North Korea-China Friendship Association, and Wang Yajun, the Chinese Ambassador to North Korea, at the Pyongyang International Airport.

Earlier, Ambassador Wang Yajun met with the leadership of Liaoning Province, which borders North Korea, on the 7th and expressed his will to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with North Korea.

Hao Peng, the party secretary of Liaoning Province, and Li Lecheng, the governor, said that Liaoning Province would contribute to the diligent development of exchanges and cooperation with North Korea on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and North Korea and the Year of China-North Korean Friendship, and will serve the national diplomatic business with actual actions.

It is noteworthy whether there will be visible changes in the situation where no significant material exchange or personnel exchange has been confirmed since North Korea lifted the national border blockade for COVID-19 prevention that lasted three years and seven months in August last year.

Meanwhile, in December last year, a government delegation from Russia’s Primorsky Krai, led by Administrative Minister Oleg Kozhemyako, visited Pyongyang to discuss various exchanges and cooperation measures, indicating that exchanges and cooperation between North Korea and Russia, North Korea, and China are in full swing.