Speaking at a banquet in his honor, Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up his visit to North Korea by praising economic development. However, he also issued a warning over efforts to denuclearize the peninsula.
In a speech in Pyongyang, Xi said North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un had "initiated a new strategic line of economic development and improving people's livelihoods, raising socialist construction in the country to a new high tide."
With international sanctions in place because of North Korea's nuclear program, the state is heavily dependent on aid, especially from China, but occasionally from South Korea.
Xi also referred to the nuclear program as he urged all sides to "stick to peace talks so as to make even greater contributions to peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the wider world," according to China's official Xinhua News Agency.
The Chinese president made his comments just days before the G20 meets in Japan.
Kim Jong Un put on a banquet in honor of Chinese President Xi JinpingImage: Reuters/KCNA
Nuclear mediator with US
Kim told the Chinese president that his visit was an opportunity to demonstrate "the immutability and invincibility of the North Korea-China friendship before the world."
Earlier, Kim was reported by Xinhua as saying he was waiting for a response from the US that should meet North Korea halfway and "explore resolution plans that accommodate each other's reasonable concerns."
Xi said China was prepared to play a role in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula: "The international community expects the US and North Korea to continue to talk and achieve results," he commented, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Xi's visit was the first by a Chinese president in 14 years and announced only three days in advance of his arrival on Thursday, when he was met by 10,000 cheering people and a 21-gun salute. A series of events, including a military parade and chanted slogans were conducted in a spectacle entitled "Invincible Socialism" at the May Day stadium in the presence of 110,000 people.
The Mass Games spectacle featured gymnasts, dancers and flip card-holding spectators Image: Reuters/KCNA
North Korea as buffer for China
The music, dance and calisthenics were watched by card-holding spectators who flipped the cards to show first Chinese and then North Korean flags.
North Korea plays a key role for China as a buffer zone between its own border and that of South Korea, where 28,500 US troops are stationed.
During the Korean War, from 1950 to 1953, China sent millions of troops known as the "Chinese People's Volunteers" to save the North from defeat.
China has been pushing for an incremental disarmament process on the Korean peninsula and a resumption of the six-nation talks it had hosted before they broke down 10 years ago.
The truth and myths of the Kim dynasty
The Kim family has ruled North Korea for the last seven decades, with state-run propaganda praising Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un as godlike figures. DW looks at the rulers behind the myths.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
A young leader
Kim Il Sung, the first and "eternal" president of North Korea, took power in 1948 with the support of the Soviet Union. The official calendar in North Korea begins with his birth year, 1912, designating it "Juche 1" after the state's Juche ideology. He was 41 when, as shown here, he signed the 1953 armistice that effectively ended the Korean War.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Hero worship
In the years and decades after the war, Pyongyang's propaganda machine worked hard to weave a mythical narrative around Kim Il Sung. His childhood and the time he spent fighting Japanese troops in the 1930s were embellished to portray him as an unrivaled military and political genius.
At the 1980 party congress, Kim announced he would be succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Il.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Ruling to the end
In 1992, Kim Il Sung started writing and publishing his memoirs, entitled "Reminiscences: With the Century." Describing his childhood, the North Korean leader claims that he first joined an anti-Japanese rally at 6 years old and became involved with the independence struggle at 8.
The memoirs remained unfinished at Kim Il Sung's death in 1994.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/JIJI Press
In his father's footsteps
After spending years in the top tiers of the regime, Kim Jong Il took power after his father's death. Kim Jong Il's 16-year rule was marked by famine and economic crisis in an already impoverished country. However, the cult of personality surrounding him and his father, Kim Il Sung, grew even stronger.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/KCNA via Korean News Service
Rising star
Historians outside North Korea believe Kim Jong Il was born in a military camp in eastern Russia, most likely in 1941. However, the leader's official biography claims it happened on the sacred Korean mountain Paektu, exactly 30 years after his father, on April 15, 1942. A North Korean legend says the birth was blessed by a new star and a double rainbow.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Family trouble
Kim Jong Il had three sons and two daughters with three different women. This 1981 photo shows Kim Jong Il sitting besides his son Kim Jong Nam, with his sister-in-law and her two children in the background. Kim Jong Nam was eventually assassinated in 2017.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Grooming a successor
In 2009, Western media reported that Kim Jong Il had picked his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to take over as the head of the regime. The two appeared together at a military parade on 2010, a year before Kim Jong Il passed away.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/V. Yu
Together
According to Pyongyang, the death of Kim Jong Il in 2011 was marked by a series of mysterious events. State media reported that ice snapped loudly at a lake on the Paektu mountain during a sudden snowstorm, with a glowing message appearing on the rocks.
After Kim Jong Il's death, a 22-meter (72-foot) statue of him was erected next to the one of his father (l.) in Pyongyang.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Mysterious past
Kim Jong Un mostly stayed out of the spotlight before his ascent to power. His exact age is disputed, but he is believed to have been born between 1982 and 1984. He was reportedly educated in Switzerland. In 2013, he surprised the world by meeting with former NBA star Dennis Rodman in Pyongyang.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A new cult
Like the leaders before him, Kim Jong Un is hallowed by the state's totalitarian regime. In 2015, South Korean media reported about a new teacher's manual in the North that claimed Kim Jong Un could drive at the age of 3. In 2017, state media said that a monument to the young leader would be build on Mount Paektu.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Kctv
A Kim with a hydrogen bomb
Altough Kim took power at a younger age and with less of a public profile than his father and grandfather, he has managed to maintain his grip on power. The assassination of his half-brother Kim Jong Nam in 2017 served to cement his reputation abroad as a merciless dictator. The North Korean leader has also vastly expanded the country's nuclear arsenal.
