In this news:
Visiting a historic mountainside in Pyongyang, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasised the shared sacrifices and deep historical ties between China and North Korea.
On Tuesday, Xi and first lady Peng Liyuan paid tribute at the Sino-Korean Friendship Tower in Moran Hill, accompanied by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju.
Honour guards placed a floral basket at the monument bearing a ribbon inscribed with the words, “The martyrs of the Chinese People’s Volunteer (CPV) Army are immortal.”
Xi then stepped forward to straighten the ribbons before the delegation observed a moment of silence.
Kim later showed Xi historical documents, photographs and oil paintings inside the tower depicting Chinese and North Korean soldiers fighting side by side during the Korean war and later working together to rebuild the country.
Xi and Kim agreed that “the shared battles of the 1950s remained an eternal historical memory for both nations”, according to state news agency Xinhua.
They pledged to jointly maintain the memorial facilities and expand revolutionary education to ensure that the spirit of the war effort would be carried forward and the traditional friendship passed down through generations.
Xi arrived in Pyongyang on Monday for a two-day state visit at Kim’s invitation. It marks Xi’s first overseas trip this year and came weeks after he received his counterparts from the US and Russia back-to-back in Beijing.
Tuesday’s highly symbolic outing mirrored the one made by the two couples during Xi’s last trip to the country in 2019.
The 30-metre (98-foot) tower on the northwest slope of Moran Hill was built in 1959 to honour the CPV who fought alongside North Korean soldiers during the Korean war from 1950 to 1953.
The tower was built from 1,025 blocks of granite and marble, a number symbolising October 25 – the day China officially entered the conflict, after UN forces pushed north of the 38th parallel following the Incheon landing.
Inside, 10 volumes of registries list 22,700 Chinese martyrs decorated as “model heroes”.
Moran Hill is closely tied to North Korean state lore.
At its foot on October 14, 1945, then leader Kim Il-sung delivered his celebrated return speech following Japan’s colonial defeat, cementing his status as an anti-Japanese resistance hero at the public square, now the site of Kim Il-sung Stadium.
The friendship tower remains a focal point of honouring North Korea’s history. Kim Jong-un regularly visits the monument, most recently laying a wreath there in July last year to mark the 72nd anniversary of the Korean war armistice.
North Korea maintains numerous revolutionary martyrs’ cemeteries across the country. The largest of its kind is the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army Martyrs’ Cemetery in Hoechang county, located some 100km (62 miles) east of Pyongyang.
It sprawls across 90,000 square metres (968,752 square feet) and holds the remains of 134 Chinese soldiers who died during the Korean war, including those of Mao Anying, the eldest son of Mao Zedong.
In total, 18 countries took part in the Korean war, with China using the conflict to resist American aggression and help North Korea. Nearly 3 million young people responded to Mao’s call to join the CPV.
More than 150,000 Chinese soldiers were killed or are missing, and 240,000 were wounded, while about 2 million Koreans, including soldiers and civilians, died or are missing.
Meanwhile, more than 36,000 Americans died in action in the Korean war, and more than 100,000 were wounded.
The 28-year-old Mao Anying joined the army as a confidential secretary and Russian translator to CPV first commander Peng Dehuai in October 1950. He was killed the next month by napalm in an air strike targeting the CPV’s command centre.
While a small number of those who died were returned to China to be buried in cities like Shenyang and Dandong, the vast majority of fallen Chinese soldiers were laid to rest directly in the soil where they fought.
Following Mao Anying’s death, initial proposals were made to repatriate his body. However, party archives revealed that Peng Dehuai sent a definitive telegram to Zhou Enlai, then the Chinese premier.
“My view is that he should be buried in North Korea,” Peng wrote. “We should erect a monument in the name of the CPV headquarters or the CPV commander to explain his voluntary enlistment and the circumstances of his sacrifice, showing he was truly a worthy son of Mao Zedong.”
Zhou reportedly signed off on the request, writing “agree with Peng’s opinion” and cementing the younger Mao’s permanent resting place in North Korea.
The CPV established a dedicated cemetery construction committee in 1954 to centralise the graves. Today, North Korea meticulously maintains seven major CPV cemeteries, including Hoechang, Anzhou and Kaesong.
For generations of Chinese leaders, making the trek to these gravesites has been a sacred protocol.
Construction of the Hoechang site was completed in 1957, and the next year, Zhou and Marshal Chen Yi braved a driving snowstorm to lay wreaths there.
In 2009, then-Chinese premier Wen Jiabao stood before the bust of Mao Anying and said, “Comrade Anying, I represent the people of the motherland to come see you. The motherland is now strong, and the people are happy. May you rest in peace.”
Wen said the people of the motherland had never forgotten the CPV martyrs and would always cherish their memory, state news agency Xinhua reported at the time.
In 2017, during a tribute at Hoechang, Chinese officials paid their respects by bowing before each individual grave and pouring shots of China’s premium national liquor, Mao-tai, directly onto the tombstones as a traditional sensory offering to the fallen.
And two months ago, Foreign Minister Wang Yi kept the tradition alive, leading a delegation to the Kandong county cemetery in April to bow before its four mass graves containing the remains of 1,383 soldiers.
North Korean leaders have also paid tribute to the Chinese martyrs on multiple occasions in a gesture of friendship.
In 2023, during a tribute to the cemetery marking the 70th anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement that ended the active combat of the Korean war, Kim laid a floral basket at the grave of Mao Anying.
Previously, the North Korean leader lauded the contribution of the CPV in the “great victory in the Fatherland Liberation War” that linked the two countries’ destinies as one, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
.png)
