China likely aims to reassert itself over a neighbour that has leaned towards Russia: Analysts<\/p>\n
The last time China\u2019s top leader, Xi Jinping, travelled to North Korea, that country\u2019s dictator, Kim Jong Un, was reeling from sanctions and failed nuclear talks with the United States.<\/p>\n
Now, nearly seven years later, as Xi returns to North Korea on June 8, he will meet a leader who is newly emboldened by an alliance with Russia that has helped his economy break out of isolation.<\/p>\n
Xi is expected to use the two-day summit with Kim to project a united front between allies against the West.<\/p>\n
But analysts say China is likely also keen to assert its influence over a neighbour that has leaned towards Russia.<\/p>\n
Kim, for his part, wants to be treated less like a junior partner to China and will likely use his new closeness to Russia to press China for economic concessions.<\/p>\n
If North Korea is able to successfully balance its two giant neighbours, Kim might feel even less constrained about advancing his nuclear weapons programme.<\/p>\n
That could destabilise a region where US allies are already worried about China\u2019s military build-up and Washington\u2019s ability to honour its defence agreements as it depletes resources fighting a war with Iran.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to know about the meeting.<\/p>\n
Xi will likely use his rare access to Kim to remind the world that North Korea depends on China and that Beijing cannot be sidelined.<\/p>\n
The messaging would align with efforts by Xi to project China as a superpower equal to the United States. China is keen to show that while Washington sows chaos – whether through its war with Iran or by imposing tariffs on allies and adversaries alike \u2014 China is a stabilising force in the world.<\/p>\n
This point was reinforced in Xi\u2019s recent summits with US President Donald Trump, then Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Beijing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China likely aims to reassert itself over a neighbour that has leaned towards Russia: Analysts The last time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[25804,25802,25808,25800,25799,25807,31,2983,18701,25796,25801,25795,34,25806,25797,25805,25803,25798],"class_list":["post-43168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-north-korea","tag-android-magazine","tag-best-magazine","tag-digital-magazines","tag-free-magazine","tag-free-magazines","tag-ipad-magazine","tag-korea","tag-magazine","tag-magazine-subscription","tag-magazines","tag-magazines-for-smartphones","tag-magzter","tag-north-korea","tag-online-digital-magazine","tag-online-magazine","tag-online-pdf-magazine","tag-pdf-for-smartphones","tag-pdf-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}