As the axis of global politics shifts toward the Asia-Pacific region, relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) have reached a depth that transcends the narrow and reductive frameworks of Western international relations theories. On June 9, 2026, Chinese President Xi Jinping’’s state visit to Pyongyang after a seven-year hiatus during which he was received by North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un with an unprecedented level of protocol was more than a mere diplomatic contact; it was a process of re-producing the historical and ontological bonds between the two state’[i]
The West-centric discipline of international relations, particularly Neorealism and Neoliberal Institutionalism, conceives of the international system as an anarchic structure and defines states within this structure as isolated, rational “billiard balls” that seek only to maximize their own utility and security. From this rationalist, actor-centered perspective, the China–North Korea relationship is typically reduced to an instrumental plane. The realist literature tends to read North Korea as a “buffer zone” or a strategic burden for China against the United States (US) and its allies (South Korea, Japan). However, this reductive approach falls short of explaining the ideological and historical continuity of the unshakeable bond between Pyongyang and Beijing.[ii]
Against this epistemological impasse, the Relational Theory developed by Qin Yaqing’places not isolated “actors,” but rather processes and “relations” at the center of analysis. According to Qin Yaqing’, the world is not a collision arena of independent subjects making rational calculations, but a relational network of entities in constant interaction, constituting their own identities through these interactions. In this context, identity and interests are not given; they are constructed within relations. For the Chinese state, “harmony” is the supreme value of the system, and this harmony is only possible through the preservation of relational integrity.
Applying Relational Theory to China–North Korea relations offers a radical paradigm shift in understanding the nature of the alliance. For China, North Korea is not merely a tool that ensures border security; it is a relational subject woven with “elder brother–younger brother” metaphors in historical, ideological, and cultural terms one that cannot be severed or pushed outside the system. China perceives abandoning North Korea not as a rational move in its own interest, but as an existential threat and rupture directed at its own relational integrity, ontological security, and identity.
Examined from a historical perspective, the foundations of this relational bond were laid during the Korean War the hot conflict of the Cold War. The Chinese People’s Volunteer Army’s fight alongside North Korea against American forces, and Mao Zedong’s loss of his own son in this war, elevated the relationship between the two countries to a dimension “sealed in blood.” Xi Jinping’’s invocation of this blood bond in the June 2026 talks emphasizing that the traditional friendship is the common heritage of both peoples is the clearest evidence of how past interactions in relational theory shape present identity.
The reflection of this historical and relational network on the North Korean side is “Juche (self-reliance),” the founding philosophy of the state. Juche, as formulated by Kim Il-sung, is commonly misinterpreted as a rigid isolationism or an absolute independence dogma. Within a relational analytical framework, however, Juche is North Korea’s strategy for preserving its own autonomy, dignity, and decision-making capacity within asymmetric power relations particularly in its bond with its colossal neighbor, China. Juche does not reject the relationship with China; rather, it constitutes the ideological shield for existing as an equal “socialist brother” within that relationship, without being assimilated.
At the core of the Juche philosophy lie political independence, economic self-sufficiency, and military self-defense. The grandeur displayed by Kim Jong-un in receiving Xi Jinping in Pyongyang with a grand military ceremony and a 21-gun salute simultaneously reflects both the immense value accorded to the Chinese leader (the hierarchical respect within the Guanxi network) and the image of a strong, independent state that Juche has constructed. This is North Korea’s way of declaring to China and the world that it is not a weak and dependent buffer zone, but a powerful ally standing on its own feet.
The Xi–Kim summit held on June 8, 2026 is a contemporary reflection of this ideological and theoretical backdrop. The four-point strategic proposal plan presented by Xi Jinping during the talks is, in essence, Relational Theory transformed into a policy document. The first proposal “consolidating mutual political trust” represents, beyond rational interests, the unshakeable confidence the two states have in each other’s regime security. Xi’s call to increase strategic communication aims not at external collision like “billiard balls,” but at keeping the nervous system of the relational network alive.
Xi’s second proposal is built on the revitalization of institutional memory and historical compacts. Noting that 2026 marks the 65th anniversary of the China–DPRK Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, Xi stated that major commemorative events would be organized. In terms of Relational Theory, commemorations and celebrations serve to ritualize shared past experiences and incorporate them into the construction of present-day identity. This treaty should not be read as an ordinary defense pact; it is the written manifesto of the two countries’ partnership of destiny.[iii]
The goal of enhancing practical cooperation, which forms the third pillar of the summit, is part of China’s strategy to keep North Korea economically viable. In Qin Yaqing’’s relational model, economic exchange functions as a “relational adhesive” that reinforces the bonds between the parties and nourishes mutual interdependence and harmony. Cooperation in fields such as agriculture, science, technology, and health gently facilitates North Korea’s integration into the Chinese system without undermining its Juche-based development objectives.
How this relational adhesive operates in practice is further confirmed by the extraordinary developments of the first half of 2026. According to official statistics, the bilateral trade volume, which reached $2.735 billion in 2025, gained momentum with the full reopening of border crossings in the post-COVID-19 period. The arrival of an international passenger train departing from Dandong to Pyongyang in March 2026, and Air China’s resumption of Beijing–Pyongyang flights, represent not merely a transportation story but, in relational theory terms, the “physical re-establishment of bonds.”
The enhancement of people-to-people and inter-party interactions rescues inter-state relations from bureaucratic coldness and places them on a societal foundation. The commencement of studies by 70 government-scholarship students from 16 different Chinese universities at Kim Il Sung University and Kim Hyong Jik University of Education in May 2026 demonstrates that the Guanxi networks to be built among the future elites are already under construction. These young people, as the true carriers of diplomatic relations, are relational nodes that will transmit the discourse of “brotherhood” to future generations.[iv]
The North Korean side’s response to this relational network and its demonstration of belonging emerge clearly in Kim Jong-un’s statements. Kim’s description of China’s global development achievements as gains that “astonish the world,” and his expression of “satisfaction” at this, exemplifies the Relational Theory notion of “internalizing the other’s success as one’s own.” Whereas in the rational actor model, the asymmetric strengthening of a neighbor creates a security dilemma, in the relational model this transforms into a source of hierarchical yet harmonious pride.
One of the most striking global repercussions of Xi’s visit is the integration of bilateral relations into the vision of global justice and governance. Xi articulated in Pyongyang his vision of a “community of shared future for mankind” as a response to the grand question of where humanity is headed. China aims to elevate North Korea from the status of an “excluded rogue state” to an honorable partner in the new world order being built against global injustice and Western hegemony.
North Korean Leader Kim, while praising these global initiatives of Xi, emphasized that unprecedented profound changes are occurring in the international system, and stated that his country would unwaveringly support the “One China” principle. While China protects North Korea during nuclear crises and United Nations (UN) sanctions, North Korea in turn defends China’s core interests by “standing on the right side of history.”
The relationship between the Juche ideology and these global initiatives offers a dialectical synthesis. While Juche provides local and inward-looking autonomy, Kim Jong-un’s emphasis on the “model of inter-state relations” built with China demonstrates how this autonomy will serve regional peace and China’s global vision. North Korea refuses to be a state that melts in China’s shadow; yet by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with China, it forms a “relational front of resistance” against the universalist liberal order imposed by the West. Communication within this relational front of resistance is entirely different from the cold, procedural, and self-interested language of Western diplomacy. Viewed from the socio-psychological dimension of the visit, Xi’s personal reception by Kim and his wife Ri Sol-ju at the airport, and the crowds pouring into the streets with flowers and balloons, prove the role of “emotional bonds” in politics as Relational Theory predicts. For Western realism, these images are the fictional propaganda of authoritarian states; yet on the relational plane, these rituals are Guanxi ontological practices that inscribe the legitimacy of ’s bonds into collective memory.
The one-on-one talks held at the Kumsusan State Guesthouse demonstrate how micro-level inter-leadership relations in international politics shape macro-level state policies. Kim’s hosting of Xi after seven years and honoring him as the most esteemed guest is an indicator of the hierarchical harmony inherent to Asian culture. In Qin Yaqing’s theory, relation is a process rather than a rational agreement. In this process, the parties make sense of their own existence in proportion to the value they accord to one another.
The complex structure of the global system in 2026, the US’s attempt to encircle China with its Indo-Pacific strategy, and the endless tensions on the Korean Peninsula do not make China and North Korea more dependent on each other; rather, they allow for the rediscovery of the existing historical bond as a partnership of fate. Analysts frequently emphasize that China cannot sacrifice North Korea as a pawn, because the collapse of North Korea or its drift toward the Western axis would mean not the collapse of China’s geographic security lines, but the bankruptcy of its relational authority in Asia and its Confucian elder brother role.
In conclusion, the Xi–Kim summit held in June 2026 is not the pragmatic threat-deflecting maneuver or mere nuclear bargaining ground that Western theorists claim. Read through Qin Yaqing’s Relational Theory, this summit is the re-updating, against the challenges of the modern era, of a historical bond written in blood. While North Korea secures its internal autonomy through the Juche philosophy, the Guanxi network it has built with China opens up an asymmetric yet dignified space of existence in the international system. China, by keeping North Korea at the heart of its relational harmony, declares to the world that it is building a new, Asia-centered international relations paradigm based on belonging and shared destiny as opposed to the West’s rational, self-interested, and domineering foreign policy understanding. In this context, the China–DPRK relationship stands as the most powerful and living proof of our era that states are not isolated billiard balls, but rather inseparable relational nodes that constitute each other’s existence.
[i] “Xi calls on China, DPRK to consolidate trust, boost practical cooperation”, Global Times, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202606/1363087.shtml, (Accessed: 09.06.2026).
[ii] “Xi calls on China, DPRK to consolidate trust, boost practical cooperation”, The National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, http://en.cppcc.gov.cn/2026-06/09/c_1189251.htm, (Accessed: 09.06.2026).
[iii] “Xi calls on China, DPRK to consolidate trust, boost practical cooperation”, CGTN, https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-06-08/Xi-Jinping-Kim-Jong-Un-hold-talks-in-Pyongyang-1NOgyNyxYk0/p.html, (Accessed: 09.06.2026).
[iv] Qin, Y. (2016). A relational theory of world politics. International studies review, 18(1), 33-47.
