A spokesperson for the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China announced on June 5: At the invitation of Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and President of the People’s Republic of China, will pay a state visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from June 8 to 9. This will be Xi’s first visit to North Korea in nearly seven years — his previous visit was in June 2019; the two leaders’ most recent meeting was in September 2025, when Kim Jong Un traveled to Beijing to attend events marking the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
The day before the visit was announced, North Korea had just publicly revealed a new nuclear material production facility, assessed by the South Korean military as a uranium enrichment plant; during his inspection, Kim Jong Un declared that he would pursue the long-term strategic goal of the nuclear arsenal with exponential growth. Analysts believe this move was intended to strengthen North Korea’s status as a nuclear state ahead of Xi’s visit. In April this year, Foreign Minister Wang Yi made an advance trip to Pyongyang and met with Kim Jong Un, widely seen as preliminary groundwork for this exchange of visits between heads of state; the direct Beijing-Pyongyang train service, which had been suspended for over five years, also resumed operations in March. This visit to North Korea comes amid a new round of contacts between the U.S. and North Korea and a volatile situation on the Korean Peninsula. Analysts offer varying interpretations of Beijing’s intentions; some suggest the trip is more about competing with Russia for strategic influence over North Korea.