Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea on June 8-9, his first trip to the country since 2019, state media in both nations reported Friday. China’s Xinhua News Agency and North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) both announced the visit but provided no further details, according to United Press International. Xi will travel to North Korea at the invitation of leader Kim Jong Un.
Xi previously made a two-day state visit to Pyongyang in June 2019. The upcoming trip comes amid a stretch of renewed high-level engagement between the longtime allies. Kim traveled to Beijing in September for a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, where he held summit talks with Xi.
The announcement of Xi’s visit came one day after North Korea unveiled a new uranium enrichment facility used to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons. Kim, speaking at the facility, called for an “exponential” increase in the country’s nuclear arsenal, according to the UPI report.
China has long been North Korea’s largest trading partner, and international observers say it continues to help Pyongyang skirt punishing economic sanctions. Ties had appeared to cool in recent years, however, as North Korea deepened military cooperation with Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In exchange for providing troops and munitions to Russia, North Korea is believed to be receiving economic support and advanced military technology for its weapons programs, reducing its dependence on China and giving Kim greater leverage in dealings with Beijing.
The visit also comes amid growing uncertainty over Beijing’s approach to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. After Xi met with U.S. President Donald Trump last month, the White House said the two leaders had reaffirmed their shared commitment to the denuclearization of North Korea. China’s Foreign Ministry, however, said only that the leaders had “exchanged views” on the Korean Peninsula. Some analysts have suggested that China increasingly views North Korea’s nuclear capabilities as a “geopolitical asset” that helps constrain Washington as competition between the two powers intensifies.
The visit will be closely watched in Seoul, where President Lee Jae Myung has sought to ease tensions with Pyongyang since taking office last year. Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Thursday proposed a four-way dialogue involving the two Koreas, the United States and China aimed at establishing a peace regime on the peninsula. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that it hopes Xi’s visit will “play a constructive role in addressing issues related to the Korean Peninsula,” according to Yonhap News Agency.