Chinese President Xi Jinping is heading to North Korea next week, a big step in patching up relations between the two neighbors after years of pandemic-era chill.
Xi will make a state visit on June 8-9 at the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency. This will be Xi's second visit to North Korea; his first was back in 2019, before COVID shut down borders and strained ties.
The trip is seen as an effort to smooth over tensions that built up during the pandemic, over denuclearization, and because of Pyongyang's growing military cooperation with Russia. Kim attended a military parade in Beijing last September marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, his first major multilateral event alongside Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Chinese officials have also made several high-profile visits to North Korea, including Premier Li Qiang's trip in October and a visit by senior leader Zhao Leji in 2024.
Xi's Visit Amid Nuclear Tensions
Xi's visit comes right after he hosted both President Donald Trump and Putin in Beijing. After his May summit with Xi, Trump said he proposed a plan to denuclearize North Korea. The White House said both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to denuclearization, but China's readout only mentioned discussions on the Korean Peninsula. Days later, China and Russia jointly opposed diplomatic isolation, sanctions, and military pressure against North Korea.
Meanwhile, Putin was in Beijing last month, pledging closer ties and signing several bilateral agreements, but he didn't secure a deal on the long-discussed Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline. Moscow and Beijing said they agreed on key parameters, but details are still unresolved, and no timeline was announced.
And on Wednesday, North Korea unveiled a new facility to produce nuclear bomb fuels, with Kim Jong Un announcing plans to boost the country's nuclear forces "at an exponential rate," according to PBS News. So Xi's visit will happen against a backdrop of escalating nuclear ambitions.
