The state visit is over. The bouquets have been presented, the banquets consumed, and the carefully choreographed handshakes have been exchanged. As Xi Jinping departed Pyongyang this afternoon, he left behind a city freshly painted for the occasion and a leader, Kim Jong-un, visibly buoyed by the display of fraternal support. For the watching world, the optics were familiar: a spectacle of authoritarian unity. But for British security chiefs, the substance beneath the symbolism is what commands attention.
Let us strip away the pageantry. What did this visit actually achieve? On paper, the two countries pledged to deepen 'strategic co-ordination' on regional security. In practice, this means China continues to provide a diplomatic shield for North Korea at the United Nations, while Pyongyang agrees to keep its nuclear ambitions within a vaguely defined 'peaceful' framework. But the street-level reality is different. In Pyongyang, citizens were mobilised to wave plastic flowers and cheer on command. In London, officials were rifling through intelligence reports, trying to gauge whether this warm embrace signals a green light for further missile tests.
There is a human cost here that often goes unmentioned. The North Korean people endure a grinding poverty while their leader pours resources into weapons. The Chinese people, too, are asked to accept a neighbour that destabilises the region. And the British public, far removed from the Korean peninsula, will bear the cost of heightened security measures and the slow erosion of global non-proliferation norms. It is a strange kind of solidarity: one that props up a regime while its populace starves.
Culturally, this visit marks a shift. Xi’s presence legitimises Kim on the world stage, elevating him from pariah to partner. It chips away at the isolation that once defined North Korea. For British policymakers, this means recalibrating their approach: less emphasis on sanctions, more on containment. But on the streets of Pyongyang, it means little. Life goes on, as it always has, under the watchful eye of the Dear Leader.
As the Chinese leader’s plane vanished over the horizon, one could almost hear the sigh of relief from Whitehall. But the threat is not gone. It has merely, for now, been repackaged as diplomacy.
