Beijing, June 7 (EFE).- Chinese President Xi Jinping will begin a two-day state visit to North Korea on Monday, his first trip to the country in seven years, as Beijing seeks to reinforce its influence over Pyongyang amid North Korea’s deepening ties with Russia and shifting regional security dynamics.
The visit, scheduled for June 8-9, comes weeks after Xi’s summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, after which the White House said both leaders had reaffirmed a «shared goal» of denuclearizing North Korea.
Analysts, however, expect Xi’s trip to focus less on the nuclear issue and more on reaffirming China’s strategic importance to its longtime ally.
According to Chris Green, a senior consultant on the Korean Peninsula at the International Crisis Group, Xi’s presence in Pyongyang strengthens the North Korean regime both symbolically and politically.
«Pyongyang’s leaders usually prefer bilateral meetings and tend to avoid multilateral forums. But Kim followed Xi’s lead by attending Beijing’s Victory Day commemorations last September, helping revive a relationship that had cooled somewhat in recent years,» Green said.
