As Beijing seeks to re-establish relations with Pyongyang, Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to North Korea for the first time in almost seven years on June 8 and 9, according to state news agency Xinhua on Friday.
The statement comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump attended separate summits that Xi convened in Beijing last month. During his first term, Trump had three meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and has previously stated that he would be amenable to another summit.
According to North Korean state media KCNA, Xi would be coming at Kim's invitation.
Last September, Kim travelled to Beijing on his trademark green armoured train to attend a large military parade.After the COVID-19 crisis halted trade and the North Korean leader strengthened ties with Moscow by deploying troops and weapons to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Beijing has attempted to reintegrate Pyongyang, its sole formal treaty ally.
"The implicit message from the Chinese side is ... we are still the principal actor when it comes to North Korea," Asia Society senior scholar John Delury stated. "One of the audiences is Russia," he stated.
After being suspended for six years due to the epidemic, passenger train services between Beijing and Pyongyang resumed in March. Air China also resumed flights between the two capitals. However, only some business travellers and exchange students have been able to make reservations; Chinese holidaymakers are still not allowed.

THIS YEAR'S FIRST OVERSEAS TRIP
Xi's first trip abroad this year will be to Pyongyang. The 72-year-old, whose international travels are growing fewer and farther between, last visited South Korea in late October, where he also met Trump.Delury stated that it would be a "big win" for the peninsula if Xi visited both Koreas within a year. "At the symbolic level, it is important for Xi to keep tabs on what's going on in Pyongyang."When it comes to the two Koreas, he continued, "the Chinese like to keep up a kind of symmetry."
Xi has made two trips to South Korea and one to North Korea since taking over as China's top leader in 2012.Kim urged for a "exponential" increase of Pyongyang's atomic arsenal during his visit to a recently operational nuclear material production facility, as reported by KCNA this week.

Kim's site visit has been connected by experts to the upcoming meeting with Xi. Kim examined plans for the "Hwasong-20," a new intercontinental ballistic missile, prior to his trip to Beijing in September.