Kim Jong Un’s Trip to China: 

The Meaning of “Blood Ties” and “Geographical Veins” Beneath the Surface

Kang Dong-wan

 Professor, Dong-A University 

<Table of Contents>
1. Kim Jong Un’s Highly Orchestrated Visit to China

2. Is Kim Jong Un’s Visit the Opening Move in a New Strategic Game?

3. South Korea Must Break Free from the Illusion of “Peace”

1. Kim Jong Un’s Highly Orchestrated Visit to China

The world’s attention was once again focused on the Korean Peninsula and North Korea. At a moment when speculation over Kim Jong Un’s serious illness, possible incapacitation, and even death had reached an extreme throwing foreign-policy assessments into confusion Kim made a striking move that completely defied public expectations.
His destination was not Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, where formal diplomatic protocol would normally take center stage. Instead, he headed to Dandong in China’s Liaoning Province, a frontline border city facing North Korea and a place charged with historical symbolism. Kim’s surprise visit on October 24, just one day before the October 25 anniversary of China’s entry into the Korean War, to the Memorial Hall of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea carried a significant political and geopolitical message extending far beyond a routine foreign visit.

The timing, itinerary, and even the gift presented during the visit appear to have been carefully calculated as part of a highly choreographed performance. Most notably, Kim made a same-day round trip across the border via the New Yalu River Bridge, which had finally opened officially 12 years after its completion.

The gesture demonstrated that North Korea and China remain physically connected by land and can move between each other whenever necessary. At the same time, it sent a powerful message that their economic and security ties represent a relationship bound by blood and therefore cannot easily be severed.

As North Korea and Russia have entered an unprecedented period of military closeness, including North Korea’s deployment of troops to the war in Ukraine, Pyongyang may have felt an urgent need to dispel concerns that its traditional relationship with China was becoming strained.
Kim’s decision to visit the memorial in Dandong on the eve of the anniversary, lay flowers, and view historical materials amounted to an official acknowledgment of a historical debt and expression of gratitude: that the North Korea of today owes its existence in part to the intervention and sacrifice of Chinese forces during the Korean War.

The following day, Rodong Sinmun again emphasized in forceful terms the “blood-forged relationship” between the two countries and their “unchanging friendship,” reinforcing this interpretation.

2. Is Kim Jong Un’s Visit the Opening Move in a New Strategic Game?

Some observers have downplayed the visit as an unusually low-key trip lacking the appropriate diplomatic stature, pointing to the absence of a formal summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Yet the significance of the visit lies precisely in the fact that it was not intended as a conventional diplomatic event centered on formal protocol in Beijing or a bilateral summit. Rather, at a moment of acute uncertainty and intense global attention, it served as a practical and symbolic gesture aimed at reaffirming the solidity of the North Korea China alliance and dispelling external doubts in a single stroke.

Particularly noteworthy was the commemorative plaque Kim presented to the memorial. It bore the message “In solemn remembrance of the footsteps of the martyrs of the Chinese People’s Volunteers, who connected the territories of our two countries through a single geographical vein, I offer eternal gratitude and respect.”

The use of the term jimaek literally, a “geographical vein” is far from trivial.
During the Kim Jong Il era, North Korean maps carried the phrase, “Our homeland is a beautiful land of three thousand ri connected by a single geographical vein.” In this usage, jimaek signifies an indivisible community of destiny sharing a single root.
By employing this philosophically and symbolically charged term at a historical site in China, Kim was signaling that the two countries share not merely an ideological alliance but a deeper sense of territorial and historical destiny.
In effect, Kim recreated on the ground in Dandong the framework of North Korea China Russia trilateral solidarity that had previously been staged in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

The more important question, however, goes beyond why Kim went to China. It is what his visit means for a rapidly shifting Korean Peninsula and how South Korea should respond.
North Korea has hinted at the possibility of additional troop deployments to Russia while strengthening security coordination among North Korea, China, and Russia. As a result, the security structure of Northeast Asia itself is undergoing fundamental change.

Kim’s trip to Dandong must therefore be understood as part of the broader strategic restructuring that North Korea has been pursuing in its policies toward South Korea and the outside world.

Pyongyang has already formally embraced the concept of “two hostile states” both domestically and externally. It has completely severed roads and railways connecting the two Koreas and accelerated the fortification of the Demilitarized Zone, erecting fences and barriers along what it increasingly treats as a national border.

The contrast is striking. Toward the South, North Korea is laying mines and building concrete barriers while declaring national and territorial separation. Toward the North, however, Kim crossed the New Yalu River Bridge and emphasized the “geographical vein” connecting North Korea with China.

In other words, Kim’s China visit can be seen as the culmination of a fundamental shift in North Korea’s defense and foreign-policy posture: seal off the South behind a hardened border, while linking strategically with China and Russia to secure survival and strengthen its offensive position.

3. South Korea Must Break Free from the Illusion of “Peace”

North Korea is methodically rearranging its strategic posture and consolidating trilateral alignment with China and Russia to increase pressure on South Korea. Yet the security reality confronting the Republic of Korea is deeply troubling.
While North Korea reinforces its ties with Russia through additional troop deployments and strengthens its blood-forged relationship with China, attitudes within South Korea that risk weakening the traditional ROK-U.S. alliance are becoming increasingly prevalent.

Expressions such as “ROK-U.S.-Japan security cooperation” and even a “ROK-U.S.-Japan alliance,” which should represent a core pillar of Northeast Asian security, are gradually disappearing even from the language of policymakers.
The result is a distorted security environment in which alliances on South Korea’s side appear to be weakening while coordination among its adversaries grows stronger.

Even more troubling is what the author views as the government’s submissive posture in the face of sacrifices made by South Korean service members.
A recent landmine explosion near the DMZ, which occurred amid North Korea’s border-fortification activities, left a South Korean soldier seriously injured. Despite what the author regards as a clear security threat and provocative situation, the government stated that it could not conclude that the incident was the result of a direct North Korean attack, thereby playing down its significance and appearing overly cautious toward Pyongyang.

When a young soldier defending the country suffers serious injuries and the government nevertheless fails to hold the principal adversary responsible, the public cannot help but ask in anger: “Whose country does this government truly serve?”
The government continues, in the author’s view, to ignore the harsh realities of international politics while repeating rhetoric about “peaceful coexistence” and “shared growth” that lacks substance.
When an adversary is sharpening its weapons, fortifying its border, and applying pressure through trilateral alignment, hiding behind slogans of peace without concrete preparations constitutes irresponsible neglect of national security and a clear dereliction of duty.

The answer to why Kim Jong Un went to China and what he meant by invoking the idea of a shared jimaek, or geographical vein, in Dandong has become clear.

North Korea is already redrawing the strategic map and putting its plans into action.
The geopolitical environment surrounding the Korean Peninsula is now, in the author’s assessment, entering one of its most dangerous moments since Korea’s liberation. South Korea’s survival cannot be guaranteed by appeals for peace that remain little more than slogans.

The ROK government must immediately break free from what the author sees as the illusion of complacent pacifism. It should strengthen the ROK-U.S. alliance to an overwhelming degree and swiftly restore trilateral ROK-U.S.-Japan security cooperation.
Security that cannot protect the blood of South Korean service members and the safety of the nation’s territory is no security at all.
Now is the final golden hour to confront the rapidly changing security landscape with clear eyes and rebuild an extraordinary level of national defense readiness with the survival of the country at stake.

※ The views expressed herein may differ from those of the Hansun Foundation.