Kim Jong Un sends Xi rare birthday message after summit
June 16 (Asia Today) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping a congratulatory message and flowers for his 73rd birthday, North Korean state media reported Tuesday, in an unusual gesture following the leaders' recent summit in Pyongyang.
It was the first time in three years that North Korea had publicly reported Kim sending Xi birthday greetings and a floral arrangement. Kim last extended such greetings in 2023, when Xi turned 70.
The Korean Central News Agency said Kim "warmly congratulated Comrade Xi Jinping on his birthday."
Kim also wished Xi good health and greater success in leading China's socialist development as the core leader of the Communist Party of China, according to the report.
North Korea's ambassador to China delivered the message and flowers to the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the news agency said.
Kim's birthday messages to Xi have generally coincided with milestone birthdays at five-year intervals.
Kim sent congratulatory messages or flowers in 2013, 2018 and 2023, when Xi turned 60, 65 and 70, respectively. His decision to recognize Xi's 73rd birthday therefore represents a departure from that pattern.
The gesture came shortly after Xi made a two-day state visit to North Korea on June 8 and 9, his first trip to the country in seven years.
During their summit, Kim and Xi agreed to strengthen what the two countries described as strategic coordination and displayed renewed unity between Pyongyang and Beijing.
A South Korean Unification Ministry official said North Korea's decision to mark a non-milestone birthday appeared to reflect the countries' increasingly close relationship.
"In the past, North Korea sent congratulatory messages or flower baskets for President Xi's milestone birthdays," the official told reporters Tuesday. "The fact that it did so this time despite this not being a milestone birthday is presumed to reflect the close relations between North Korea and China, including President Xi's recent visit to North Korea."
Some analysts say Kim's birthday diplomacy has evolved from a largely ceremonial practice tied to milestone years into an indicator of North Korea's relations with its major partners.
Kim has also increasingly sent birthday messages to Russian President Vladimir Putin in non-milestone years as military and political cooperation between North Korea and Russia has expanded.
North Korean media reported that Kim sent Putin a message for his 70th birthday in 2022 and followed it with additional birthday greetings in 2024 and 2025.
The gestures came as Pyongyang and Moscow signed a new partnership treaty and expanded military cooperation following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"North Korea is using the birthdays of Xi Jinping and Putin to advance its strategic objectives in its dealings with China and Russia," said Oh Gyeong-seop, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
"This non-milestone birthday message appears intended to maximize the effects of the recent North Korea-China summit," Oh said.
-- Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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