{"id":1493,"date":"2026-06-08T12:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=1493"},"modified":"2026-06-08T12:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:09:18","slug":"chinas-xi-making-first-visit-to-north-korea-in-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=1493","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Xi making first visit to North Korea in years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang this week, both countries announced Friday.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump hopeful that Iran and Israel will stop shooting at each other as violence reemerges in Mideast<\/a><\/p>\n

Chinese and North Korean state media jointly released the dates of the trip \u2014 Monday and Tuesday \u2014 and stated that Mr. Kim extended the invitation.<\/p>\n

Typically, no details were offered on their agenda, but pundits paint a complex picture of how Chinese relations with Russia, Taiwan and the U.S. could play out during Mr. Xi\u2019s Pyongyang sojourn.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s jaunt is the latest fixture in Mr. Xi\u2019s spate of high-profile global activities. He has projected public displays of national power while interacting with key counterparts with whom he positions China as a useful or essential counterparty.<\/p>\n

In September, Mr. Xi hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Kim and other national leaders in Beijing at arguably the world\u2019s most spectacular commemoration of the 80th anniversary of World War II\u2019s conclusion.<\/p>\n

More recently, he welcomed Taiwanese opposition leader Cheng Li-wun to Beijing on April 10; President Trump on May 14; and Mr. Putin again on May 20.<\/p>\n

For a leader who prefers hosting to visiting, it will be Mr. Xi\u2019s first overseas trip of 2026, and his first to North Korea since 2019.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s policy toward a nation that has long provided a strategic buffer on its northeastern flank, but which is hardly a compliant client state, intersects with its wider regional and international relationships.<\/p>\n

When meeting Mr. Kim, Mr. Xi may seek to do Mr. Trump a favor, one expert suggested.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d think the [North Korea] visit was already discussed during his summit with Trump,\u201d said Lee Dong-min, president of Seoul-based think tank the Peninsula Institute for Strategic Analysis. \u201cThere is a possibility he may hand-deliver a message from Trump and there may be talks about a new round of U.S.-North Korea talks.\u201d<\/p>\n

That would be reciprocity for Mr. Trump\u2019s stance on Taiwan \u2014 a mission-critical issue for Mr. Xi.<\/p>\n

Since the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing last month, Washington has gone quiet on Taiwan and the status of a planned U.S. arms dispatch to the democratic island is uncertain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. and China have different approaches on geopolitics, but as long as China is happy with the Taiwan issue, Beijing is likely to work closely with the U.S. on issues they are trying to find common ground on, and one may be North Korea,\u201d Mr. Lee said. \u201cThis is risky for Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n

China has long kept North Korea\u2019s economy afloat with aid and trade, but below the surface, relations have periodically been shaken by strategic distrust.<\/p>\n

Chinese generals essentially took control over the Korean War after U.S.-led forces counter-invaded North Korea in late 1950, shunting aside Pyongyang\u2019s defeated strategists.<\/p>\n

Unlike U.S. troops, who remain in the South to this day, Chinese troops exited the North in 1958. But the two countries maintain a mutual defense treaty \u2014 with 2026 marking its 65th anniversary.<\/p>\n

In 1992, Pyongyang was aggrieved when Beijing opened diplomatic relations with Seoul. In 2003, China sought to negotiate away North Korean nuclear arms via \u201cSix-Party Talks,\u201d which eventually foundered in 2007.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Israel and Iran trade strikes, threatening to drag the region back into full-scale war<\/a><\/p>\n

North Korean defectors say that Pyongyang is frequently irked by what it considers Beijing\u2019s high-handedness.<\/p>\n

The powerful sister of Mr. Kim on Sunday, a day before Mr. Xi\u2019s visit, dismissed the decades-long efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula as an \u201canachronistic dream.\u201d She said the North will steadily expand its nuclear arsenal in the face of U.S.-led threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. assertion to backbite the status of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state has no legally binding force and no one will be bound by the U.S. unilateral rhetoric,\u201d she said, using the abbreviation for North Korea\u2019s official name.<\/p>\n

She dismissed as \u201cfalse information\u201d a U.S. announcement that Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea in their summit in Beijing last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome officials in the United States have failed to wake from their escapist and anachronistic dream,\u201d Kim Yo-jong said.<\/p>\n

Despite its permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, Beijing has softened its stance on sanctions and Mr. Kim\u2019s nuclear arsenal, while extending Pyongyang diplomatic cover at the U.N.<\/p>\n

China is the top economic partner of an increasingly war-torn Russia \u2014 which has, in turn, become an increasingly important patron of North Korea.<\/p>\n

After North Korea and Russia reset bilateral relations in 2024, Mr. Kim was the only national leader to deploy troops to fight alongside Russia against Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Some believe Pyongyang\u2019s Moscow drift has expanded its political, economic and military elbow room, while reducing Beijing\u2019s customary dominance.<\/p>\n

In Pyongyang, Mr. Xi may reassert Chinese primacy in North Korea, perhaps by urging the full reopening of border crossings closed during COVID, and the resumption of pre-pandemic trade levels.<\/p>\n

\u201c90% of North Korean trade was with China, but now Russian assistance to North Korea may be worth $20 billion in needed items \u2014 energy, food, medicines and military technologies,\u201d said Mr. Lee. \u201cThe status of Russia is much higher than China in Pyongyang at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, a Russian expert says that there is no Beijing-Moscow competition over Pyongyang: Beijing holds an obvious advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina\u2019s economy is 10 times the size of Russia\u2019s, and Russia\u2019s economic performance depends on China,\u201d said Andrei Lankov, a North Korean expert at Seoul\u2019s Kookmin University.<\/p>\n

Amid sanctions and isolation resulting from the Ukraine war, some Russian strategists fret over their deepening dependency on China.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see why China would worry about excessive Russian influence,\u201d Mr. Lankov continued. \u201cIf they did, they could fix it with a couple of phone calls to the Kremlin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Kim Kardashian watches Lewis Hamilton claim 2nd place at the Monaco Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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