Xi Jinping to visit North Korea as Beijing seeks to bolster Pyongyang ties

WEB DESK: Chinese president’s trip comes as Beijing aims to reassert influence over its only formal treaty ally. Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a rare visit to North Korea from June 8 to 9, state media reported on Friday, marking his first trip to Pyongyang in nearly seven years as Beijing works to deepen relations with its reclusive neighbour.

The announcement by China’s Xinhua news agency follows separate summits hosted by Xi in Beijing last month for US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been invited to host the Chinese president, according to Pyongyang’s state media KCNA.

Kim himself visited Beijing last September, attending a major military parade and travelling on his signature green armoured train.

Return to the fold

Beijing has sought to draw Pyongyang back into its orbit after the Covid-19 pandemic severely disrupted bilateral exchanges. Relations cooled further as North Korea strengthened ties with Moscow, supplying troops and weapons to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Passenger train services between Beijing and Pyongyang resumed in March after a six-year hiatus, while Air China has restarted flights, though access remains restricted largely to business travellers and exchange students, with Chinese tourists still barred.

Strategic signalling

The visit will be Xi’s first overseas trip this year. The Chinese leader, now 72, has been making fewer international journeys. His last trip abroad was to South Korea in late October, where he also met President Trump.

Since assuming power in 2012, Xi has visited North Korea once and South Korea twice. He previously travelled to Pyongyang in 2008 as vice president during the rule of Kim Jong Il.

Analysts say the trip carries symbolic weight. “The message implicit from the Chinese side is … we are still the principal actor when it comes to North Korea,” said John Delury, a senior fellow at the Asia Society. One key audience for the visit is Russia, he added.

Delury noted that Xi visiting both Koreas within a year would represent a “big win” for the peninsula, reflecting Beijing’s preference for maintaining symmetry in its relations with the two neighbours.

The timing of the visit coincides with heightened North Korean nuclear activity. This week, KCNA reported Kim’s inspection of a new nuclear material production facility, where he called for an “exponential” expansion of Pyongyang’s atomic arsenal. Experts link such moves to diplomatic signalling ahead of high-level engagements.