Xi Visits North Korea, Vows Ties at 'New Heights'
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- Xi Jinping made a rare trip to Pyongyang on June 8, his first visit since 2019, and was greeted by Kim Jong Un with a red-carpet military salute and cheering crowds, per Chinese state media.
- Xi told Kim he was willing to bring China-North Korea relations to 'new heights' and proposed strengthening exchanges 'in diplomacy, law enforcement and the military,' per Xinhua.
- The visit comes weeks after Xi hosted Donald Trump in Beijing, where the White House said they 'confirmed their shared goal to denuclearise North Korea' — but Kim Yo Jong said on the eve of Xi's arrival that the nuclear programme was 'the line of no retreat.'
- Analysts told AFP that Beijing has likely accepted North Korea as a nuclear state and is shifting to 'underwriting regime durability,' with Harvard's Seong-Hyon Lee arguing a 'heavily armed and aligned buffer state' serves China's regional strategy.
- Kim Jong Un has deepened ties with Vladimir Putin, sending troops to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine and securing critical support from Moscow.
- North Korea is the only country with an official, binding military alliance with China, and some analysts framed the summit as Xi's move to counter Russia's growing influence over Pyongyang.
Why it matters: Xi is doubling down on a binding military alliance with a nuclear-armed Pyongyang just weeks after publicly reaffirming a denuclearization goal with Trump — a contradiction analysts say reflects Beijing's real priority: underwriting Kim's regime rather than disarming it. North Korea is China's only treaty ally, giving Beijing a strategic counterweight against US partners South Korea and Japan as China-Japan ties have soured.
