Report: China’s Xi Jinping Planning Trip to Estranged North Korea

Reports in South Korean media this week claimed that genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping is planning to visit North Korea in the near future for only the second time since seizing power in China and may arrive in Pyongyang next week.

Neither the governments of China nor North Korea have offered any confirmation of such a visit. The Chinese Foreign Ministry explicitly rejected the chance to clarify if a visit was imminent during a regular press briefing on Thursday. The government of South Korea, meanwhile, has responded to the reports seeking some role in helping maintain the peace on the peninsula and improve relations among all parties involved.

A visit by Xi would likely be intended, on China’s part, to reaffirm Beijing’s status as North Korea’s most important ally and largest trade partner. China was an active party on Pyongyang’s behalf in the Korean War, which was paused via armistice agreement in 1953 but, since no peace deal was ever signed, remains an active conflict between the two Koreas, China, and America. While the Kim family regime has, for most of its existence, honored China as its closest partner, current dictator Kim Jong-un began distancing his government from China following the onset of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Rumors spread that Kim personally fell severely ill – later confirmed by sister Kim Yo-jong – and the dictator made overt gestures of solidarity to Russia, prioritizing the relationship with Moscow over that with Beijing. North Korea’s current ties to Russia are fueled by the country’s active deployment of fighters to the Ukraine war theater, posing a national security threat to Europe and aiding the ongoing invasion.

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin concluded a visit to Beijing this week, after which both he and Xi signed a document asserting their solidarity with North Korea. A week before Putin’s visit, President Donald Trump held meetings in Beijing in which the two made a call for “denuclearization” in Korea.

The first report claiming that Xi Jinping could soon make an appearance in Pyongyang was published by the South Korean Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday. Yonhap cited an anonymous “high-ranking government official” in South Korea who was quoted as saying, “we have obtained intelligence indicating that President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea soon.” A second anonymous source agreed that a “high possibility” of Xi visiting either in late May or early June was on the table.

The South Korean newspaper Korea JoongAng Daily similarly reported Thursday that Xi was planning to visit Pyongyang in the near future.

“There are also widespread rumors that Chinese working-level officials recently visited North Korea,” an anonymous source told JoongAng.

The Blue House, the presidential office in Seoul, confirmed on Thursday that it was “monitoring related movements” regarding the potential Xi-Kim meeting.

“The government hopes that exchanges between North Korea and China will take place in a way that contributes to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” the statement asserted, adding that the office of leftist President Lee Jae-myung “expects China to play a constructive role in issues related to the Korean Peninsula.”

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young added to the intrigue by proposing that an in-person meeting between Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un would likely involve discussions about Kim meeting President Trump once again. During his first term in office, Trump became the first American president to step foot on North Korean soil and met with Kim on three occasions on the inter-Korean border, in Singapore, and in Vietnam. Trump has stated, as recently as last week, that he maintains friendly personal relations with Kim, while Kim appeared to confirm this sentiment in 2024, sending a public statement of support to Trump after he survived an assassination attempt on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry addressed the rumors on Thursday but neither confirmed nor denied them.

“China and the DPRK [North Korea] are friendly socialist neighbors,” ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters. “The two parties and two countries have a long-term tradition of friendly exchanges, which serves the interests of the two sides as well as peace and stability in the region. For your specific question, I have no information to offer at the moment.”

China does not traditionally announce or confirm visits by foreign dignitaries, or travel by Xi, until the last minute.

Xi has only visited North Korea once, in 2019, the South China Morning Post noted, but the two most recently met in September, when Kim traveled to China for a display of unity at a massive military parade.

While North Korea has maintained cordial ties with China, Russia’s influence on the country has eclipsed China’s in the post-pandemic period. While Xi’s last visit to Pyongyang occurred in 2019, Vladimir Putin visited the capital city in 2024, signing a mutual defense treaty with North Korea that is believed to be the basis for the ongoing deployment of North Korean soldiers against Ukraine. Estimates suggest that North Korea has sent as many as 15,000 troops to fight Ukraine, some of whom have been caught on the frontlines and Ukraine has displayed in videos to the public. Kim has repeatedly praised his soldiers in public for their sacrifices for Russia and denigrated Ukrainian forces as “Nazis.”

Putin invited North Korean troops to march alongside Russian soldiers for Moscow’s traditional World War II parade in May, a sign of high respect.

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