State media in Pyongyang is saying North
Korea's leader Kim Jong-un will be
attending China's victory celebration
next week that marks the formal
surrender of Japan during World War II.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin is
also uh to be among those the 26 heads
of state who will attend this event.
Well, let's go live to Laura Bicken, our
correspondent in Beijing for more on
this. Uh Laura, that will be quite a
gathering, won't it? Tell us more.
>> Well, this was announced during a press
conference um to discuss the details of
the upcoming parade on September the 3rd
and it's taken us all by a bit of
surprise. We knew that the Russian
leader, Vladimir Putin, was on his way,
but we did not know that the North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un would also be
coming. Now, I think we all will be
really wanting to see exactly the
seating arrangements. Will President C
have Vladimir Putin on one side and Kim
Jong-un on the other? Now, it's worth
pointing out at this stage that when it
comes to Russia's invasion of Ukraine,
China has tried to maintain a neutral
stance while urging all parties to come
to a peaceful resolution. But it's going
to be very hard for President Xi to
maintain that neutral stance with both
of these leaders standing next to him
while Chinese troops march through the
center of Beijing. But both of these
leaders owe China a lot. North Korea
gets around 90% of its imports from
China. Russia certainly gets a lot of
money with regards to oil and energy
purchases um made by China. And the
United States has accused Beijing
repeatedly of providing components to
Russia that it could use in its war
effort in Ukraine. That is something
that China denies. What I do think
certainly with the optics of this is
wonder what part can China play if any
in persuading these two leaders to end
the invasion of Ukraine. We know that
that's something that President Trump
wants China's help with. Is this
something that can happen on this
occasion? So, that's one of the
questions we'll be asking. And does this
raise the prospect in the future of all
three leaders meeting at some point
President