On the guest list of the 93 military parade,It is not surprising that Putin stays first, but immediately following Kim Jong-un, international observers are collectively surprised., the top leader of North Korea, who rarely appeared, not only broke the record of not taking part in multilateral occasions in more than five years, but also appeared second only to the Russian president, becoming the most unexpected "diplomatic highlight" of the 2025 93 military parade.
In 2015, Russia announced that Kim Jong Un would attend the Red Square military parade in Moscow, but at the last minute he was replaced by North Korean veteran Kim Yong Nam, triggering speculation that his domestic situation was unstable. At that time, North Korea's trade dependence on China was as high as 90%, while the trade volume between Russia and North Korea was only 1/60 of that between China and North Korea. The geographical balance was obviously tilted.
A decade later, the turnaround was even more dramatic. Kim Jong-un not only went to Beijing in person, but also ranked second as the guest of honor as the head of state, far exceeding traditional friends such as Vietnam and Cambodia.This rankings are not coincidental, in the first half of 2025, the volume of trade between China and the DPRK has increased by 16.2%, and North Korea has openly supported China's position in several UN Security Council votes on China, and the strategic cooperation between the two countries has deepened from the economic level to the field of political security.
Behind Kim Jong-un's "ice-breaking" is North Korea's reconstruction of the national survival logic.
Once the project is implemented, North Korea will transform from a "land-locked state" into a logistics hub connecting Central Asia and Northeast Asia. In 2025, the freight volume of the basin has increased by 22.5% year-on-year.
In the face of the escalation of military exercises between the United States and South Korea and frequent frictions on the peninsula, North Korea urgently needs to consolidate its defense ties with China and Russia. China's new generation of strategic weapons and digital combat system displayed in this military parade provided North Korea with a technical reference for confrontation and deterrence.
Internationally, North Korea rarely announces its visit itinerary in advance, and the DPRK media broadcast Kim Jong-un's departure video in real time, changing the secret style of "official announcement after the event" in the past. The Korean media pointed out that this was a strategic turn to send the signal of "normal country" to the world.
The parallel presence of Putin and Kim Jong-un reflects the substantial escalation of the three-country cooperation.
The energy artery has been opened up, the Russian-North Korean railway renovation project has accelerated, and the "sanction avoidance channel" for Russian oil and gas to be directly supplied to Northeast China through North Korea has gradually taken shape, weakening the effectiveness of the US maritime blockade.
Military cooperation has deepened, and the frequency of Sino-Russian joint military exercises has reached a record high. North Korea has accelerated its own national defense modernization by observing the display of China's military space forces and cyber and electrical offensive and defensive forces. The economic corridor is taking shape. China, Russia and North Korea are negotiating to establish the Tumen River Free Trade Zone to incorporate North Korea into the regional industrial chain and hedge against the "island effect" of Western sanctions.
The U.S. think tank is highly alert about this, the three-country cooperation is tearing the gap in the "first island chain" strategy built by the United States and South Korea, transforming the Korean Peninsula from the "front of the Cold War" into a springboard for Eurasian economic integration.
The guest list exposed the contradictions of the Western policy towards China, the collective absence of the Group of Seven Countries, only the appearance of the Slovak Prime Minister Fico, referred to by foreign media as the "Western unicorn", reflecting the split between European pragmatism and ideology. South Korea sent only the chairman of the congress, with the high specifications of Kim Jong-un to form a sharp contrast. The conflict in the non-military zone has not been supported by the Security Council, and has shown South Korea's weakened speech on the issue of the peninsula.
The Japanese Defense Ministry's report acknowledged that China-Russia cooperation is "rushing the Asia-Pacific security architecture", and the Japanese media described the parade as a "new pattern in Asia".
It is worth mentioning that Trump chose to meet with the President of Poland on the same day, but does not know that Beijing is showing a shocking scene – the Russian-Iranian “anti-U.S. Triangle” for the first time. When Putin, Kim Jong-un and Iranian President Pearson shrugged Tiananmen’s hand, the Pentagon’s operational laboratory may be lighting through the night. The data of U.S. exports to China fell 11.4% in the second quarter, this moment is eye-catching.
Europe's current diplomatic fracture: Slovak Prime Minister Fitzgerald Fitzgerald became the "single" of the Western camp, and the EU's internal policy towards China has been divided.When Germany's French leaders withdrew under Japanese lobbying, Fitzgerald's presence proves that Eastern European countries are not willing to be the line-up of the game of great powers anymore.Indonesian President Prabowo, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar and other leaders of six ASEAN countries set the highest attendance specifications. While the Philippines wavered in the South China Sea, neighboring countries voted with their feet to board the express train of China's development.
When Kim Jong-un stood in the second position of the viewing platform and stared at the phalanx of domestic equipment passing through Chang'an Avenue, the military parade had gone beyond commemorative significance. China announced to the world that its national defense autonomy could not be interfered with through 100% localization and actual combat marshalling of equipment. The seating arrangement of Kim Jong-un sent a clear signal to the peninsula that the construction of a peace mechanism cannot be separated from China's efforts.
The 45 sides referred to this time are not only a demonstration of military power, but also a declaration of reconstruction of the international order: weapons and arms. new high-speed hypersonic missiles hit the sky, strategic early warning radar network covered the sky, unmanned combat clusters like bees flooded, these first appeared to account for more than 60% of the domestic heavy weapons, announcing that China has transformed from technology and runners to rules makers.When Taiwanese commentator Tsai Zheng-yuan asserted that "the most belligerent soldier in the United States must shut up," he broke the iron law of power politics: truth lies only within missile range.
Multilateral diplomacy refines real gold. China specially invited 50 survivors of international friends from 14 countries to watch the ceremony side by side with "hardcore friends" such as Serbia and Belarus. When Cambodian King Sihamoni bowed to the veterans of the Anti-Japanese War, China used historical memory to condense an alliance beyond ideology, which was in sharp contrast to the circle of allies delineated by the United States with aircraft carriers.
Kim Jong-un's "second place" is by no means a ceremonial arrangement. From Moscow's invitation failed ten years ago to Beijing's core position now, North Korea is leveraging China and Russia to break through the diplomatic dilemma and transform itself from a "sanctioned person" into a key fulcrum of the Northeast Asia Economic Corridor. While the West is still debating the effectiveness of sanctions, China, the DPRK and Russia have used the roar of bulldozers on the Tumen River to write a footnote of the new geographical reality, and this time, the rules of the chessboard are set by Beijing.
When Kim Jong Un visited China on his birthday in 2018, South Korean media speculated that "China had prepared a special gift." Seven years later, the 93rd military parade may be the gift that North Korea won the core seat of the ticket for the first time in the reshaped Asian order.
This gathering in the name of history finally points to the future. When the live broadcast in 85 languages is broadcast all over the world, 700 million audience witnesses not only the display of weapons, but also the hope of a multi-polar world.
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Leaders such as Putin and Kim Jong-un will attend the ninth-third parade. - 2025-08-28 10:31 · News