{"id":949,"date":"2026-06-09T14:36:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=949"},"modified":"2026-06-09T14:36:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:36:42","slug":"chinese-president-xi-returns-home-after-closely-watched-trip-to-north-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=949","title":{"rendered":"Chinese President Xi returns home after closely watched trip to North Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 35 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div><p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-article-content=\"true\" data-testid=\"article-editor-content\">\n<div class=\"editor-img-box\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both; margin-bottom: 24px;margin-bottom: 30px;; width: 728px\"><picture><img src=\"height: auto; aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1278; width: 100%\" alt=\" A woman looks at a screen with the newspaper Rodong Sinmun showing the news on the visit of China&#039;s President Xi Jinping, in Kaeson Station of the Pyongyang Metro in Pyongyang, June 9. AFP-Yonhap\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" title=\"\"><\/picture>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p> A woman looks at a screen with the newspaper Rodong Sinmun showing the news on the visit of China&#8217;s President Xi Jinping, in Kaeson Station of the Pyongyang Metro in Pyongyang, June 9. AFP-Yonhap<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Chinese President Xi Jinping returned home on Tuesday following a rare trip to North Korea that included a bilateral meeting and public appearances with leader Kim Jong-un underscoring a joint push to reestablish the alliance between their countries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Xi flew to the capital Pyongyang on Monday in his first visit there in seven years. During their summit later in the day, Xi expressed China\u2019s willingness to expand cooperation in a wide range of areas including trade, agriculture, construction and technology, while Kim said the two countries will maintain their friendship as \u201cthe most important top-priority strategic work,\u201d according to Chinese and North Korean state media reports.<\/p>\n<div class=\"editor-img-box\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both; margin-bottom: 24px;margin-bottom: 30px;; width: 728px\"><picture><img src=\"height: auto; aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1338; width: 100%\" alt=\"Chinese President Xi Jinping, front row right, concludes his state visit to North Korea and departs from Pyongyang, June 9. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, front row left, and his wife Ri Sol-ju, back row left, are seeing off Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan. Xinhua-Yonhap\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\"><\/picture>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>Chinese President Xi Jinping, front row right, concludes his state visit to North Korea and departs from Pyongyang, June 9. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, front row left, and his wife Ri Sol-ju, back row left, are seeing off Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan. Xinhua-Yonhap<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Xi and Kim on Tuesday visited a North Korea-China friendship tower honoring Chinese soldiers who fought alongside North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War. They stressed the importance of carrying forward the countries\u2019 traditional friendship and spirit of resistance against the United States, Chinese state media reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">The leaders, who last met in Beijing in September, also toured a ruling Workers\u2019 Party training school and planted a fir tree symbolizing bilateral ties. Xi later attended a luncheon and farewell ceremony before returning to Beijing, Chinese state media said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"editor-img-box\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both; margin-bottom: 24px;margin-bottom: 30px;; width: 728px\"><picture><img src=\"height: auto; aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1281; width: 100%\" alt=\" A giant screen at a shopping area in Beijing, June 8, shows news footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attending a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in North Korea. Reuters-Yonhap\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\"><\/picture>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p> A giant screen at a shopping area in Beijing, June 8, shows news footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attending a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in North Korea. Reuters-Yonhap<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Experts say Xi likely aimed to restore his country&#8217;s exclusive influence on North Korea, whose foreign policy priority has shifted to Russia in recent years. They assess Kim needs some economic and political benefits in return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Reports from the two countries&#8217; state media outlets on Monday&#8217;s summit touted Xi and Kim&#8217;s commitment to expand cooperation and carried Kim&#8217;s renewed support of China\u2019s \u201cone-China\u201d policy over the Taiwan issue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">But the reports didn&#8217;t say whether the leaders discussed North Korea\u2019s nuclear program, a sensitive security issue in the region. During his 2019 trip to Pyongyang, Xi said Beijing was willing play a constructive role in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.<\/p>\n<div class=\"editor-img-box\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both; margin-bottom: 24px;margin-bottom: 30px;; width: 728px\"><picture><img src=\"height: auto; aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1280; width: 100%\" alt=\"Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after jointly planting a fir tree during a visit to the  Central Cadres Training School of the WPK in Pyongyang, June 9. Xinhua-Yonhap\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\"><\/picture>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after jointly planting a fir tree during a visit to the  Central Cadres Training School of the WPK in Pyongyang, June 9. Xinhua-Yonhap<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">This could be seen as a diplomatic win for Kim, who is eager to win an international recognition as a nuclear weapons state, a status that experts say he would use to call for international economic sanctions to be lifted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">By not mentioning the denuclearization issue, China leaves a room for the interpretation that it appears to accept North Korea\u2019s possible status as a nuclear state, moving beyond just overlooking it, according to a report by Ban Kil-joo, assistant professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">In a strategic give-and-take, North Korea reaffirmed its support of China over the Taiwan issue, Ban said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Kim Gyu-beom, an analyst at the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul, said China appears to be pursuing a \u201cmanagerial approach\u201d that neither fully supports nor strongly pressures Pyongyang, while maintaining strategic communication with North Korea and prioritizing regional stability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">Restoring an exclusive influence over North Korea would give Xi leverage in dealings with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly expressed his desire to restart diplomacy with Kim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"editor-p\">There have been questions about China&#8217;s influence over North Korea in recent years, with the North focusing on its support of Russia&#8217;s war efforts by sending troops and weapons in exchange of economic and other assistance.<\/p>\n<div class=\"editor-img-box\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both; margin-bottom: 24px;margin-bottom: 30px;; width: 728px\"><picture><img src=\"height: auto; aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1280; width: 100%\" alt=\"Well-wishers wave national flags of North Korea and China during a farewell ceremony for Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan in Pyongyang, June 9. Xinhua-Yonhap\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\"><\/picture>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>Well-wishers wave national flags of North Korea and China during a farewell ceremony for Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan in Pyongyang, June 9. 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Pyongyang, June 9. AFP-Yonhap Chinese President Xi Jinping returned home on Tuesday following a rare trip to North Korea that included a bilateral meeting and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-politics"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}