REUTERS, Beijing

China will not swerve from its commitment to safeguarding common interests with North Korea or waver in its support for Kim Jong Un, President Xi Jinping told Pyongyang’s leader yesterday during a rare summit.

The neighbours should strengthen strategic ties and firmly protect their sovereignty, security, and development interests, Xi told Kim, an official Chinese summary of the meeting showed, as Beijing looks to draw Pyongyang closer.

Xi’s two-day visit, his first in seven years to China’s reclusive neighbour, comes at a time when its economy, strengthened by growing trade and military ties to Russia, could boost Kim’s confidence in talks.

“I am deeply pleased and also feel a special sense of closeness,” Xi told Kim on his first international trip this year. No matter how the international situation changed, he reaffirmed to Kim, China would continue to highly value its traditional friendship with North Korea, the summary showed.

“The firm support for Comrade General Secretary Kim Jong Un’s leadership of the DPRK socialist cause will not change, and the firm determination to safeguard common interests and good strategic environment ... will not change,” Xi added.

He was referring to the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The Chinese leader arrived to a red-carpet welcome from Kim and wife Ri Sol Ju, alongside a guard of honour, while children presented bouquets of flowers, video from Chinese state media showed.