Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un applaud as troops march past during a Victory Day ceremony at Tiananmen Square in Beijing in September last year. [AP]
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un applaud as troops march past during a Victory Day ceremony at Tiananmen Square in Beijing in September last year. [AP]

Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a two-day state visit to North Korea from Monday to Tuesday.

China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Friday that Xi will travel to North Korea at the invitation of Kim Jong-un, general secretary of the Korean Workers' Party and chairman of the State Affairs Commission. The announcement came from the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — a detail that signals the visit carries the character of a strategic inter-party exchange between Beijing and Pyongyang, in addition to state-level diplomacy. The department did not disclose Xi's specific schedule or destinations.

KCNA also confirmed the visit Friday, saying Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and president of the People's Republic of China, would make a state visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from June 8 to 9 at the invitation of Kim Jong-un, general secretary of the Korean Workers' Party and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK.

The face-to-face meeting between Xi and Kim will be their first since the two leaders met at China's 80th Victory Day anniversary celebrations in Beijing in September last year — a gap of nine months. For Xi, it will be his first visit to North Korea in seven years, since June 2019, when he became the first Chinese leader to visit Pyongyang since Kim Jong-un came to power and held summit talks with him. Xi had also visited North Korea in 2008, but at the time he held the position of vice president. This will be his second visit to the country since Kim took power.

The visit comes as North Korea, China and Russia have been deepening military and security cooperation. The sight of Xi, Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin together at China's Victory Day celebrations last September drew attention from Time magazine, which described the gathering as the start of a new era of trilateral alignment. North Korea has strengthened its ties with Russia by deploying troops to support Moscow in its war against Ukraine, while Russia and China reaffirmed their commitment to closer security cooperation during Putin's visit to Beijing last month.

Xi's visit is widely seen as an effort to reaffirm the Sino-North Korean friendship while demonstrating China's influence over Korean Peninsula affairs. This year also marks the 65th anniversary of the Sino-North Korean Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, a milestone that socialist states traditionally use to showcase bilateral relations. The visit is expected to serve as an occasion to reaffirm the two countries' traditional alliance and sense of solidarity.

The trip also draws attention for coming immediately after Xi held back-to-back summits with the United States and Russia last month. Following the US-China summit, Beijing said the two sides had confirmed a shared goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. That language was absent from the subsequent China-Russia summit, at which Beijing stated only its opposition to sanctions against North Korea.

Xi is expected to brief Kim on recent discussions with major powers over international affairs and the Korean Peninsula, and to explore coordinated responses going forward. Some analysts have raised the possibility that Xi could play a mediating role in restarting North Korea-US dialogue. Others note, however, that North Korea has shown little enthusiasm for such engagement, and that Washington is currently preoccupied with pressing issues including Iran and Cuba, leaving limited momentum to pursue renewed talks with Pyongyang.

Economic cooperation is also expected to feature prominently on the agenda. China is seen as eager to further expand bilateral trade with North Korea, which has been recovering gradually since the COVID-19 pandemic. Issues that Beijing has long taken an interest in — including access to the lower reaches of the Tumen River and an outlet to the Donghae, development cooperation in the border region, and plans for utilizing the Rason Special Economic Zone — could also come up during the talks.


kate01@heraldcorp.com