North Korea's New Year's Cards: A Chill in China Relations?

North Korea's state media reported Sunday that leader Kim Jong-un sent New Year's cards to several heads of state, including the Chinese president, but did not disclose the recipients' names or the contents of the messages. The omission stood in contrast to an earlier state media report on Dec. 27, when Pyongyang fully disclosed its celebratory message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a move widely interpreted as highlighting closer ties with Moscow while signaling unease toward Beijing. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent New Year’s cards to the president of the People’s Republic of China and his spouse, as well as to the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, according to North Korean state media on Sunday. The Rodong Sinmun identified the recipients only by their official titles, omitting Chinese President Xi Jinping’s name and grouping China with Vietnam, Singapore, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Belarus and Algeria. The newspaper also declined to publish the contents of the cards, mirroring its earlier coverage on Jan. 1 when it reported that Xi sent a New Year’s card to Kim without disclosing the message itself. That approach stood in sharp contrast to Pyongyang’s handling of exchanges with Russia. On Dec. 27 last year, the Rodong Sinmun reported that Kim sent a congratulatory message to Russian President Putin and published the full text. "Alliance today is a precious common asset to be carried forward forever," Kim wrote in the message. The Rodong Sinmun also published a congratulatory message Putin sent to Kim on Dec. 25 last year, continuing a pattern of publicly emphasizing ties with Moscow. "I am convinced that we will in the future, too, strengthen the relations of friendship and alliance in every way and conduct constructive cooperation on regional and international issues," Putin said in the message. North Korean state media also unusually released the full text of a New Year’s message Putin sent to Kim in December 2024, with coverage last year following the same pattern. Analysts say the contrasting treatment reflects lingering strain in North Korea’s relationship with China despite Kim’s attendance at China’s Victory Day celebrations last September. “As far as Seoul’s various hope-filled wild dreams called ‘repair of North-South relations’ are concerned, they all can never come true,” Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, said on Wednesday, in remarks that appeared to allude to a South Korea-China summit earlier this month. President Lee Jae Myung reportedly asked Xi to play a “mediator for peace” role on the North Korean nuclear issue. Analysts say Pyongyang may have signaled displeasure by drawing a clear distinction between China and Russia in its New Year’s messaging. U.S.-based North Korea monitoring site 38 North also noted that North Korean media coverage of a meeting between Kim and Xi in September last year included some positive language but fell short of the tone used in earlier summit reports, suggesting the two sides have yet to fully restore relations. “China has chosen strategic silence on North Korea’s denuclearization but does not support framing the two Koreas as permanently hostile states,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies. “North Korea and China cannot break ties, but they also face structural limits that prevent complete alignment. “The Workers’ Party’s Ninth Congress will be a key indicator of future relations between the two countries." Meanwhile, South Korea has reportedly begun deploying the high-powered Hyunmoo-5 ballistic missile to front line units in stages since last year. The missile is designed to destroy underground command facilities in wartime. “The Hyunmoo-5 has entered the process of operational deployment, and we plan to mass-produce the system,” Minister of Defense Ahn Gyu-back said in an interview last year. Developed under a classified program, the Hyunmoo-5 carries a warhead weighing up to eight tons and has earned the nickname “monster missile.” When South Korea unveiled the missile during Armed Forces Day events in October 2024, Kim Yo-jong called it a "weapon of worthless large bulk." This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY SHIM SEOK-YONG [[email protected]]