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SEOUL, South Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is heading to Beijing by train on Tuesday to attend a military parade with his Chinese and Russian counterparts, North Korea’s state media reported. The event could potentially demonstrate their three-way unity against the United States.
Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among the 26 world leaders who’ll join Chinese President Xi Jinping to watch Wednesday’s massive military parade in Beijing that commemorates the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and China’s fight against Japan’s wartime aggressions.
While the event would mark Kim’s first attendance of a major multilateral event during his 14-year rule, it would also be the first time for Kim, Xi and Putin, all key challengers of the US, to gather at the same venue. None of the leaders have confirmed a private trilateral meeting.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported early Tuesday that Kim left Pyongyang for Beijing by his special train on Monday to participate in the celebrations. KCNA, citing Foreign Ministry official Kim Chon Il, said that Kim Jong Un was traveling with top officials including Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui.
South Korean media reported Kim’s train was expected to arrive in Beijing on Tuesday after confirming its arrival in the Chinese border city of Dandong on Monday night.
Kim’s travel marks his first visit to China since 2019 and the fifth visit in total since he inherited power upon his father’s death in late 2011.
Putin arrived in China on Sunday to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional summit, as well as the Beijing parade. Kremlin Aide Yuri Ushakov told Russia’s TASS news agency on Sunday that a meeting with Kim on the sidelines was “under consideration.”
North Korea observers are paying keen attention to Kim possibly meeting Xi bilaterally as well and holding even a trilateral meeting with Xi and Putin. The three leaders have met bilaterally previously but have yet to hold a trilateral meeting.
North Korea’s foreign policy priority has been Russia in recent years as it has been supplying troops and ammunition to support Russia’s war against Ukraine in exchange for economic and military assistance. North Korea’s relations with China have reportedly turned sour in recent years, but experts say Kim likely hopes to restore ties as China is North Korea’s biggest trading partner and aid benefactor and he would want to brace for the end of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Since aligning with Russia, North Korea has become more vocal in international affairs beyond the Korean Peninsula, issuing diplomatic statements on conflicts in the Middle East and in the Taiwan Strait, while portraying itself as a part of a united front against Washington. Some experts say Kim’s presence at the multilateral event in Beijing is part of efforts to develop partnerships with other nations close to China and Russia.
Kim’s trip comes as President Donald Trump and new liberal South Korean President Lee Jae Myung have repeatedly expressed their hopes to restart talks with North Korea. North Korea has been shunning talks with the US and South Korea and pushing to expand its nuclear and missile arsenals since Kim’s earlier round of diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019.
Before departing for China on Monday, Kim visited a North Korean missile research institute to review progress on developing a new rocket engine made with carbon-fiber composite materials, which the North plans to use in its intercontinental ballistic missiles, KCNA reported. The North in recent years has unveiled various versions of ICBMs that demonstrated potential range to reach the US mainland during test flights.
 

DUBLIN: Israel has moved the process of securing EU approval for its diaspora bond prospectus to Luxembourg from Ireland amid increasing opposition in Dublin to its central bank’s role in approving the program on behalf of the European Union.
Irish lawmakers and pro-Palestine campaign groups have called on the central bank to stop facilitating the sale of the bonds over the last year due to Israel’s near two-year military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 63,000 people, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health officials.
Israel’s diaspora bonds are relatively small and sold mainly in Jewish communities around the world to help supplement the state’s bond sales that finance its budget deficit that has risen due to the war. Israel launched a diaspora bond campaign in October 2023 to raise money amid the conflict.
Non-EU countries must choose one EU member state to apply to for approval of a prospectus where securities are traded in the EU and Ireland’s central bank had been asked to approve Israel’s diaspora bond program each year since 2021.
A joint committee of Irish lawmakers recommended in August that the government seek to amend EU regulations so as to allow each individual European central bank to refuse to act as the competent authority for such bond prospectuses.
Protesters have also demonstrated outside the central bank’s offices.
Ireland is one of the most pro-Palestinian EU member states. It officially recognized a Palestinian state last year and the government is drafting legislation on restricting trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Irish central bank had consistently said it is legally obliged to approve any prospectus once the relevant conditions are met.
In a letter to a lawmaker published by the central bank, Governor Gabriel Makhlouf said the approval for Israel’s program would be transferred to Luxembourg upon the expiry of the prior year’s prospectus on Monday.
The new prospectus published on the website of Israel Bonds, the country’s borrowing vehicle for diaspora bonds, said its program for the next year had been approved by Luxembourg.
Israel’s finance ministry said the move was a natural step as the state was already working with Luxembourg in its tradable sovereign debt program. The move will ensure Israel “maintains continuous access to investors worldwide,” it added in an emailed statement.