Xi visits North Korea to meet Kim, his first visit since 2019

Seoul, South Korea (LaPresse/AP) – Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to North Korea tomorrow for the first time in almost seven years. This trip offers North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the opportunity to showcase an increasingly assertive foreign policy, based on closer ties with former Cold War allies. China aims to reaffirm its influence over a traditionally allied government, which has recently moved closer to Russia. According to observers, the meeting between the two leaders is the first since Kim travelled to Beijing for a World War II event in September 2025. Kim is likely to give Xi a grand and lavish welcome on a symbolic level, but China may not be able to achieve much from an increasingly self-assured Kim.