The People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) established diplomatic relations on 6 October 1949, five days after the proclamation of the PRC. In 1950, China intervened in the Korean War through the People's Volunteer Army after the North Korean forces had been defeated by United Nations Forces in the Korean War, successfully ensuring North Korea's survival. In 1961, China and North Korea signed a mutual aid and co-operation treaty, which is currently the only defense pact China has with any nation. North Korea attempted to not take sides during the Sino-Soviet split, though relations deteriorated during the Cultural Revolution, leading North Korea to move closer to the Soviet Union. Though improving in the 1970s, the relations weakened after China refused North Korean plans to reinvade South Korea, after the Khmer Rouge victory at the Fall of Phnom Penh.
The relations deteriorated further in the 1980s when China began reform and opening up, which led China to open up to Western countries and their allies including South Korea, which led to the full normalization of diplomatic relations with the south in 1992. The reform and opening up also led China to decrease economic aid to North Korea, though China gave aid during the 1990s North Korean famine. The dissolution of the Soviet Union increased North Korea's dependence on China. In the 21st century, relations declined due to North Korea's nuclear weapons program, which China opposed. China condemned the 2006 North Korean nuclear test, as well as the subsequent nuclear tests in 2009, 2013, January 2016, September 2016 and 2017. China supported or abstained from several United Nations Security Council resolutions on sanctions on North Korea, leading them to be approved. Relations have again been increasingly close since 2018, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un making multiple trips to Beijing to meet Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Xi Jinping, who himself visited Pyongyang in 2019 and 2026. During the 2020s, China started omitting mentioning denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The two countries officially describe their relationship as a traditional friendly and cooperative relationship. China maintains an embassy in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and a consulate general in Chongjin. The embassy of North Korea in China is located in Beijing's Chaoyang District, while a consulate general is in Shenyang. China is by far North Korea's largest trading partner, with more than 90 percent of North Korea's imports coming from China, while North Korea is a significant recipient of overseas Chinese aid. As socialist states ruled by communist parties, the two nations retain ideological ties. North Korea has adhered to the one China principle, recognizing the PRC as the only representative of China and Taiwan as part of China. North Korea also supports China's policies in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, and rejects interference in China's internal affairs.
History
Paramount leaders of China and Supreme leaders of North Korea since 1950
Background
Relations between China and North Korea began in the 1940s before the two even became formal states. Many future senior officials of the Workers' Party of Korea, including Kim Il Sung, had once been members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Chinese foreign minister Qian Qichen stated in his book Ten Diplomatic Records that the traditional friendship between China and North Korea was formed when Kim Il Sung and other Koreans participated in the Anti-Japanese War in Northeast China during the 1930s and 1940s. After World War II, after decades of Japanese occupation, the northern half of Korea was placed under Soviet administration. In 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was officially established.
During the Chinese Civil War, the CCP was struggling to make gains in South Manchuria. Due to North Korea's proximity to South Manchuria, the CCP leaned on the DPRK for support. After military failures in Andong and Tonghua, 15,000 wounded Chinese Communist soldiers were taken in by North Korean families. When the CCP had to withdraw, they left 20,000 tons of vital supplies with the Koreans. Between late 1947 and early 1948, the Koreans helped transport more than 520,000 tons of goods to the CCP, even suspending passenger services to ensure their arrival, and immensely lowering fees had they not already been exempt from them. To return the favor, in late 1946, when Kim Il-sung asked the CCP for aid because of famine in North Korea, they sent 10,000 tons of grain through gifts and trade within the year. In addition to this, the CCP lead thousands of ethnic Koreans in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) back to Korea, strengthening the up-and-coming Korean People's Army (KPA). The People's Republic of China (PRC) was established a year later when the CCP won the Chinese Civil War. The PRC was founded on 1 October 1949. The People's Republic of China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea exchanged diplomatic recognition on 6 October 1949 with the PRC recognizing the DPRK as the sole legitimate authority of Korea.
Korean War
In April 1950, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin put pressure on Kim Il Sung to gain Chinese approval for an invasion of South Korea, stating:
If you should get kicked in the teeth, I shall not lift a finger. You have to ask Mao for all the help.
Kim Il Sung made a secret visit to Beijing in May 1950 and met with CCP leaders for the first time on 13 May. No official records of the meeting survive but the Chinese learned that North Korea planned to invade South Korea. Afterward, Mao demanded an "urgent answer" and "personal clarifications" from Stalin regarding Soviet support and emphasized that the CCP needed to be involved in the decision making; the request was relayed through N. V. Roshchin, the Soviet ambassador to China. Although it is not clear as to when or how signing a Sino-DPRK alliance treaty was brought up beforehand, it was around this time that Mao proposed to Stalin to postpone signing until after Korea's unification. Some historians believe that Chinese leader Mao Zedong needed reassurances from Stalin because he lacked confidence in Kim. According to Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs, China approved North Korea's plans. In other sources, Mao did not approve the plan in advance, and was concerned that it would provoke an American response and that China might become involved in the conflict.
Even though the Koreans saw American intervention as unlikely, Mao ensured a North Korean diplomat that, if the US entered the conflict, China would send assistance. On 25 June 1950, the North invaded the South. Within days, American forces were sent to the peninsula. Shortly after, the Soviet Ambassador to China reported in a telegram to Stalin that the Chinese felt frustrated that the "Korean comrades [had] underestimated the possibility of American armed intervention". At the time, the PRC was in a difficult position. It was barely one year old, and the majority of its military forces were in south China, opposite Taiwan, over 1,000 miles away. As soon as North Korea invaded, the United States deployed forces not only to Korea but also to the Taiwan strait. Therefore, the PRC faced potential conflicts with America on two fronts. Despite this, it was clear that China–North Korea border assumed great strategic value for the Chinese Communist Party: Japan had invaded China through Korea twice in the First Sino-Japanese War and during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and it was feared the US could do the same. Supporting them militarily could also allow the CCP to boost their influence within North Korea and help direct the development of Korean communism.
At a meeting with the Politburo on 4 August 1950, Mao said,
"If the American imperialists are victorious, they will become dizzy with success, and then be in a position to threaten us. We have to help [North] Korea; we have to assist them."
The next day, Mao gave the military a deadline: be ready for combat in Korea "by the end of the month". However, more time was needed to prepare, and the date was delayed. On 30 September, US forces invaded North Korea, representing a significant turning point in the war. On 1 October 1950, Kim Il Sung held an emergency meeting with the Chinese ambassador to the North, Ni Zhiliang, petitioning for their urgent entry into the conflict. Stalin also asked China to send troops. On 2 October, Mao rejected sending troops, saying Chinese troops were not prepared well enough and that an intervention could trigger a world war with the United States. After being pushed by Stalin, Mao reconsidered his decision, and sent Kim Il Sung a telegram on 8 October that Chinese aid would be coming. On 12 October, Mao again said China would not send troops but finally agreed to intervene on 13 October. On 19 October, Chinese forces crossed into North Korea. The same day, Pyongyang fell to the Americans.
China sent over one million People's Volunteer Army to aid in the war effort. In addition to dispatching military personnel, China also received North Korean refugees and students and provided economic aid during the war. Then, Douglas MacArthur defied US and UN orders and pushed towards the Yalu River, which enlarged the conflict when Chinese forces fought back and caught the UN forces by surprise, resulting them to retreat back to the 38th parallel. Chinese soldiers were able to retake Pyongyang and later took Seoul in 1951, though U.S. forces later recaptured the latter city. Eventually, the conflict turned into a stalemate and also the current boundary between North Korea and South Korea.
Following the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953, China, along with members of the Eastern Bloc led by the Soviet Union, provided extensive economic assistance to Pyongyang to support the reconstruction and economic development of North Korea. After the war China continued to station 300,000 troops in North Korea for five years. National Defense Minister and commander of the Chinese forces in Korea Peng Dehuai urged Mao to remove Kim from power, but he was sidelined after he criticized the Great Leap Forward. The war had allowed the newly established PRC to demonstrate that they will not bow to American military might, and will intervene when needed. This meant that their relationship with North Korea became an important element of China-U.S. relations.
Relations during the Cold War
1950s
In 1956, at the 2nd Plenary Session of the 3rd Central Committee, leading pro-China Korean figures known as the Yan'an faction attempted to remove Kim Il Sung from power with the support of China and the Soviet Union, but failed. This incident has become known as the August faction incident and forms the historical basis for North Korean fears of Chinese interference. A joint Soviet-Chinese delegation co-headed by Anastas Mikoyan and Peng Dehuai were sent to Pyongyang to instruct Kim Il Sung to cease any purge and reinstate the leaders of the Yan'an and Soviet factions in September 1956, leading Kim to backtack partially. At the same time, China tried to maintain good relations with North Korea because of the Sino-Soviet split and de-Stalinization. In May 1957, during a meeting with Kim, Mao said China had been wrong to intervene in the WPK's internal affairs and that there would not be interventions like the Mikoyan–Peng delegation again. On 28 October 1958, Chinese troops fully withdrew from North Korea. In 1959, China and North Korea signed a nuclear co-operation agreement.
1960s
Initially, the 1960s began with the two nations strengthening their alliance. As Sino-Soviet relations turned sour, China and North Korea gradually warmed to each other, as they were closer ideologically than their eastern European counterparts, and shared a common enemy: the United States. In 1961, the two countries signed the Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty, whereby China pledged to immediately render military and other assistance by all means to its ally against any outside attack. This agreement was renewed in 1981, 2001 and 2021. As of at least 2024, North Korea is the only country with which China has a formal alliance. On 28 October 1968, Rodong Sinmun published an article titled Let Us Defend the Socialist Camp, which took a pro-Chinese and anti-Soviet line by condemning "do not distinguish between their revolutionary comrades and class enemies" and seek amicable relations with the West. The article also said the Soviet Union could not represent the socialist bloc alone, and that attempts to isolate China were attempts to divide the socialist camp.
However, the 1960s have also been characterized as a "contentious" period in China-North Korean relations. After China detonated their first nuclear device in October 1964, a North Korean delegation visited Beijing to seek assistance with their own nuclear programme, but they were rebuffed and returned to Pyongyang empty-handed. In the autumn of 1965, Kim Il Sung, who was preparing to launch a new war to take over South Korea, told Chinese ambassador Hao Deqing "sooner or later, there will be a fight in Korea" and asked for the Chinese army to participate in it. Kim's plans were ultimately shelved after China refused to support them, leading to a deterioration of relations between China and North Korea.
After Cultural Revolution was launched in May 1966, relations between China and North Korea deteriorated rapidly. Inspired by the Cultural Revolution, students from the Chinese diaspora in Pyongyang organized a patriotic hike by waving the Chinese flag and shouting "Long live Chairman Mao!" and "Long live the Communist Party!". The WPK secretary of the school attempted to stop them, but the students stormed the secretary's office on 23 August, leading North Korea to close the school. The Workers' Party of Korea also criticized the Cultural Revolution and described Mao Zedong as "an old fool who has gone out of his mind". Red Guards referred to Kim Il Sung as a "fat revisionist". North Korea installed posters with anti-Mao slogans along the border with China, which remained until 1968. China pressured North Korea to relinquish parts of the Paektu Mountain, threatening a military intervention. China recalled its ambassador from Pyongyang in October 1966, and the Red Guards criticized North Korea as being "revisionist" in the Dongfanghong newspaper. Tensions between Chinese Red Guards and North Korea led to some armed clashes between 1968 and 1969, with ethnic Koreans in Yanbian massacred by Red Guards. North Korea threatened to cut the Chinese diaspora from the country's public distribution system if they did not leave North Korea or naturalized, leading to their near-total decimation.