Beijing, June 8, 2026

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Pyongyang on Monday for a two-day state visit, the first to North Korea in seven years. He was welcomed at the airport by Kim Jong Un himself, accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan, in a ceremony marking a strengthening of bilateral ties.

Chinese President Xi Jinping began a two-day state visit to Pyongyang on Monday, the first to North Korea in seven years, and was welcomed at the airport by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Peng Liyuan.

What Has Changed Since June 5

Update of June 8, 2026: Xi Jinping's visit to Pyongyang, which began on Monday, represents the Chinese president's first foreign trip of the year and his return to North Korea after seven years. Compared with the early anticipations of June 5, the visit has now taken shape with a program of official talks and a lavish welcome ceremony, attended by full delegations and thousands of citizens mobilized in the streets of the North Korean capital. The main new developments concern the schedule of bilateral meetings, the joint statements released by Xinhua, and the international reactions, particularly from Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Triumphant Welcome at Pyongyang Airport

Kim Jong Un personally welcomed Xi Jinping and his wife at the capital's airport. According to photos released by the Xinhua news agency, the guests were received with a cannon salute and a cheering crowd, while the Chinese motorcade passed through the capital's triumphal arch. Thousands of people took part in the lavish welcome ceremony, a sign of the political importance Pyongyang attributes to the event.

This is Xi Jinping's first foreign trip of the year and his first visit to North Korea since 2019. The last meeting between the two leaders dates back to last September, when Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin were guests of honor at a military parade in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of Japan's capitulation at the end of World War II.

According to Chinese sources, the visit is taking place at the invitation of Kim Jong Un. In an article published Monday in the newspaper of the North Korean Workers' Party Rodong Sinmun, Xi wrote that the traditional friendship between China and North Korea will remain «unbreakable,» regardless of changes in the times and the international situation, and evoked «new development opportunities» for the two neighboring countries.

Xi's Messages: «Unbreakable» Friendship and New Opportunities

Xi also outlined prospects for closer cooperation in areas such as the economy, trade, and science. During the talks in Pyongyang, he added, according to Xinhua, that «regardless of how the international situation changes» China will maintain the traditional friendship and will support Kim in leading North Korea's «socialist course,» hoping that both sides will «maintain high-level exchange as a guiding principle and build on the foundations of mutual political trust.»

For his part, Kim Jong Un described relations between the two countries, again according to Xinhua, as «unbreakable,» and replied that the strengthening of bilateral relations is an absolute strategic priority. Xi took the opportunity to distance himself from «hegemonism and power politics,» formulations with which Beijing habitually targets the United States without ever explicitly naming them in this context.

Kim Yo Jong, the politically influential sister of the North Korean leader, declared on Sunday that North Korea's status as a nuclear power is in no way negotiable. Previously, the same Kim Yo Jong had described the country's nuclear state condition as an «irreversible reality – regardless of whether others recognize it or not,» a position that, according to observers, signals Pyongyang's determination to defend its atomic program.

The Nuclear Question: Pyongyang Raises Its Voice

North Korea inscribed its status as a nuclear power in the Constitution in 2023, and continues to expand its arsenal despite United Nations sanctions. Recently, Kim Jong Un visited a new facility for the production of weapons-grade nuclear material, a sign that the North Korean authorities consider the atomic deterrent an indispensable pillar of their security.

Beijing, for its part, continues officially to support the goal of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. However, according to several analysts, China has in fact accepted North Korea as a nuclear power and does not exert pressure for Pyongyang to give up its program, focusing instead on regional stability. In recent days, during the visit to Beijing of US President Donald Trump, the two sides had reaffirmed, according to the White House, the common goal of denuclearization.

The Axis with Russia and the Competition with Moscow

Experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington expect Xi to focus on consolidating China's traditional position as North Korea's most important partner. Victor Cha, a former senior US diplomat and currently head of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy department at CSIS, anticipates that Beijing will position itself more clearly than before alongside Pyongyang.

According to some observers, the visit should also be read as an attempt by Beijing to balance Russia's growing influence over Kim's regime, fueled by the new military pact signed with Moscow. The agreement provides, among other things, for the supply of weapons and the deployment of North Korean soldiers in support of Russian forces in the Ukraine conflict. Pyongyang, for its part, receives in return resources, new trade routes, and, above all, military know-how.

Since February 2022, Pyongyang has provided Moscow not only with large quantities of ammunition and artillery shells, but has also sent up to 15,000 soldiers to support the Russian armed forces. Minseon Ku, of DePaul University in Chicago, has observed that «overall, Moscow is not a great power like China,» and that «the balance of power between Moscow and Pyongyang is more balanced than that between Beijing and Pyongyang: Moscow needs Kim for its war in Ukraine, just as Kim needs technology and foodstuffs from Russia.»

Seong-Hyon Lee, visiting scholar at the Asia Center of Harvard University, has added that «China's broader strategy benefits from a stable, heavily armed, and allied buffer state that absorbs the military forces of the United States and its allies.» This is a position that, according to analysts, helps explain why Beijing continues to support – diplomatically, economically, and politically – its largely internationally isolated neighbor.

China remains by far North Korea's main trading partner: last year, bilateral trade grew by 25%, reaching 2.7 billion dollars, returning to pre-pandemic levels. However, a substantial part of the North Korean population lives in conditions of malnutrition, in a country marked by poverty and multiple international sanctions over its missile and nuclear program.

Gabriela Bernal, an observer of the Korean Peninsula, wrote in her newsletter 'Peninsula Dispatch' that «North Korea is increasingly setting the terms of the relationship with the world's great powers.» South Korean expert Mitch Shin, currently a researcher at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, stated that Kim's decisions have «direct implications for Euro-Atlantic security,» particularly in light of the military support offered to Moscow.

Regional Reactions and Future Prospects

On the regional front, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi have both expressed their willingness to meet the North Korean leader, a sign that Seoul and Tokyo are seeking parallel channels of dialogue with respect to the strengthening of the Beijing-Pyongyang axis. Xi's visit, in this context, could redefine the diplomatic balances in Northeast Asia.

Furthermore, last March, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko visited Pyongyang to expand cooperation with Putin's East Asian partner, confirming the tendency of Pyongyang to broaden its network of international relations. Xi's visit therefore fits into a broader picture of North Korea's rapprochement with various capitals, with Beijing intending to reaffirm its role as privileged partner.