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People watch a large screen showing an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Pyongyang Railway Station in Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, June 21, 2019<\/p>\n
China\u2019s\u00a0Xi Jinping\u00a0is traveling to North Korea for the first time in nearly seven years in a trip that offers North Korean leader\u00a0Kim Jong Un\u00a0a stage to showcase an increasingly assertive foreign policy anchored by closer ties with his country\u2019s former Cold War allies.<\/p>\n
China, the North\u2019s economic pipeline, is expected to reassert its influence over a traditionally allied government that has grown closer to Russia in recent times.<\/p>\n
The meeting between the two leaders is their first since\u00a0Kim traveled to Beijing\u00a0for a World War II event in September 2025.<\/p>\n
Here is a look at what they may be seeking from their upcoming meeting:<\/p>\n
What Kim wants<\/p>\n
After years of prioritizing Russia\u00a0\u2014 dispatching thousands of troops and munitions to support Moscow\u203as invasion of Ukraine \u2014 North Korea\u2019s leader is now seeking stronger ties with China to break further out of isolation, embracing the idea of a \u201cnew Cold War\u201d and projecting Pyongyang as part of a united front against Washington.<\/p>\n
Since the era of its previous leaders, North Korea has long maintained an \u201cequidistance\u201d approach toward Beijing and Moscow, playing its two main benefactors against each other to maximize its gains.<\/p>\n
While he is receiving crucial support from Russia for backing its war effort, likely including military technologies and aid, Kim cannot fulfil his promise to improve the living standards of his populace without greater economic assistance from China, according to Koh Yu-hwan, a former president of Seoul\u2019s Institute of National Unification.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorth Korea vows to maintain a self-reliant economic system and focus on advancing its nuclear capabilities, but in reality it\u2019s nearly impossible to raise living standards by mobilizing internal resources alone,\u201d Koh said.<\/p>\n
The Kim-Xi meeting could include discussions on resuming\u00a0Chinese tourism to North Korea\u00a0and opening a bridge over the Yalu River that has remained unused years after its completion, Koh said. The leaders could also discuss joint economic development projects in border regions shared by North Korea, China and Russia.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen whether Kim at some point will use his increased diplomatic footing to reengage with Washington after\u00a0his talks with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019 over disagreements about sanctions on North Korea.<\/p>\n
Pyongyang has so far rebuffed Trump\u2019s offers to resume talks after the American president entered his second term,\u00a0insisting that Washington first drop its demand for North Korea\u2019s denuclearization\u00a0as a precondition for negotiations. Kim also met Xi before traveling to Singapore and Vietnam for his summits with Trump in 2018 and\u00a02019,\u00a0moves widely interpreted as efforts to bolster his\u00a0bargaining position.\u00a0\u201cFrom North Korea\u2019s perspective, there\u2019s belief that having China\u2019s backing provides a sense of security and confidence when seeking to improve relations with the United States,\u201d said Park Won Gon, a professor at Seoul\u2019s Ewha University.<\/p>\n
What Xi wants<\/p>\n
For China, the visit is a chance to bring back a\u00a0traditional ally\u00a0closer into its orbit, by offering possible economic incentives and food aid, traditional assets it has given to North Korea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Chinese are privately a little uneasy at the embrace of Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin, that the North Koreans have really gravitated towards very heavily towards the Russians. Part of Xi Jinping\u2019s goal is to correct the balance,\u201d said Mike Chinoy, a former CNN journalist and author of an upcoming book about the insular country.<\/p>\n
Xi is making his first overseas trip in 2026 after becoming increasingly selective about making state visits since the pandemic. Coming on the heels of separately hosting both\u00a0Trump\u00a0and\u00a0Putin,\u00a0the choice is strategic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trip ensures no one can reshape the peninsula\u2019s security architecture without his concurrence,\u201d Seong-Hyon Lee, a senior fellow at the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, said.<\/p>\n
Beijing is also realistic in response to Kim\u2019s clear nuclear ambitions.<\/p>\n
In April, China\u2019s Foreign Minister\u00a0Wang Yi visited Pyongyang and met with Kim.\u00a0Observers noted the absence of the word \u201cdenuclearization\u201d from the statement on the visit, a departure from the standard line that China usually deploys which calls for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most telling sign of the visit may be a silence: if China\u2019s official readout omits the word \u2018denuclearization,\u2019 Beijing has effectively accepted North Korea as a nuclear state, folding the issue into its broader buffer strategy against the U.S.,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n
In exchange, China could seek greater access to the estuary of the Tumen River, which forms part of the border between the two countries, and navigational rights in waters off the Korean Peninsula\u2019s east coast.<\/p>\n
Ultimately Kim is likely to give Xi a grand and lavish welcome at the symbolic level, but China may not be able to extract much from an\u00a0increasingly confident Kim,\u00a0experts say.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to give Xi Jinping a welcome befitting of the head of state of their giant neighbor, but he\u2019s not going to play the pliant \u2018little brother,\u2019\u201d said Chinoy. KIM TONG-HYUNG & HUIZHONG WU, SEOUL, MDT\/AP<\/p>\n
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