Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit North Korea for the first time since 2019
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit North Korea next week, both countries announced on Friday, in what will be his first visit in nearly seven years.
His trip will be the latest in a series of moves by China to strengthen its relationship with its nuclear-armed neighbor. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reached out to Russia in recent years, notably by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war with Ukraine.
But over the past year, Kim has also been trying to improve relations with China, the North’s biggest trading partner and aid provider.
“As North Korea builds closer ties with Russia, China wants to use Xi’s visit to reassert its influence on Pyongyang and protect its interests in northeast Asia,” said William Yang, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Xi will visit the country from Monday to Tuesday, Chinese and North Korean media said in a brief statement. His last visit was in June 2019.
The trip comes just weeks after Xi hosted US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in quick succession in Beijing.
US President Donald Trump returned to Washington after a high-profile trip to China, but without much success on trade or concrete support from Beijing in efforts to end the war in Iran. Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, an advisory board member with the China Strategic Risks Institute, says Trump “needs” China’s help to end the war as America’s allies in the region have offered little support.
North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has long been a major concern of the United States, which it opposes. The UN has imposed economic sanctions on North Korea because of its nuclear and missile development.
The announcement of the trip came a day after North Korea unveiled a new nuclear bomb production facility.
It is believed to be a uranium enrichment plant, although North Korea has not confirmed this.
During his visit to the facility, Kim announced plans to strengthen the country’s nuclear forces “on an increasing scale.” Experts say the facility’s disclosure means Kim was eager to strengthen his country’s status as a nuclear-weapon state ahead of Xi’s visit.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Minister Anita Anand during a visit to Ottawa to discuss trade and Canada-China relations – the first such visit in 10 years.
Experts say Kim wants to be recognized by the world as a nuclear power in order to demand that the sanctions be lifted. They say Kim will eventually push for disarmament talks with the US to win concessions to restore part of his country’s nuclear power.
Kim has been focused on expanding nuclear weapons since the collapse of his diplomacy with Trump in 2019.
Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to resume talks with Kim, but the North Korean leader said the US must first lower its demand that North Korea denuclearize as a precondition for talks.
Analysts will be watching to see what, if anything, China says during Xi’s visit about North Korea’s claims of denuclearization.
Xi and Kim met in Beijing in September and pledged support and enhanced cooperation. Kim was in the Chinese capital to attend a meeting with the Chinese military and other foreign leaders, including Putin.
Russia and China, both members of the UN Security Council, have blocked efforts by the US and others to tighten international sanctions on North Korea, despite its banned weapons tests.
At their meeting in Beijing last month, Putin and Xi expressed their opposition to North Korea’s “foreign policy isolation, economic sanctions, military pressure and other methods of creating security threats,” according to a statement from the Kremlin.
Embracing the ideals of the “Cold War” and a mixed world, Kim is pursuing an assertive foreign policy by expanding relations with countries that are locked in the face of the United States.
Trips abroad are rare for Xi, who has greatly reduced his international travel since the COVID-19 pandemic. His last visit abroad was to South Korea when he last attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where he met with Trump.
