North Korean, Chinese leaders agree to boost ties at Pyongyang summit

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and China's Xi Jinping agreed to ​expand cooperation in the areas of politics, economy and culture at a summit in Pyongyang that opened a new chapter in ties, the North's ‌official KCNA news agency said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Making his first visit in seven years to China's only formal treaty ally, Xi told Kim he aimed to drive progress in ties, with both agreeing to strive for closer strategic communication through visits by high-level officials, KCNA said.

Kim told Xi he would fully support the "One China principle," which Beijing views as meaning that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one ​country, regardless of changes in the international situation, it added.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force ​to bring the island under Beijing's control, although Taipei rejects the sovereignty claims.

Despite the expressions of goodwill, however, analysts saw contrasting priorities in ⁠the official summaries of the visit.

While China's official Xinhua news agency detailed proposals ranging from high-level exchanges to trade and agriculture, along with restoration of transport links, KCNA cast the ​summit more broadly as a pact of equal partners, the analysts said.

Pyongyang stressed regime dignity and the neighbours' "special relationship," added Lim Eul-chul, a professor at South Korea's Kyungnam University, while ​Beijing emphasised practical state-to-state ties and its initiatives for international order.

North Korea removed elements that could make it look like a subordinate, dependent or beneficiary party, and rewrote the relationship as one between equals," said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

"It amplified signals of solidarity, such as anti-U.S. and Taiwan-related messages, while erasing signals of dependence or subordination."

It was not immediately ​clear if the leaders plan further talks on Tuesday, when South Korean media said Xi is likely to visit the Sino-Korean Friendship Tower in Pyongyang, which commemorates Chinese soldiers ​who died in the Korean War.