Chinese President Xi Jinping touched down in Pyongyang on June 8, marking his first visit to North Korea since 2019. The two-day state visit includes a formal summit with Kim Jong Un, and the signal it sends to the rest of the world is hard to miss: Beijing wants to remind everyone that its relationship with Pyongyang still matters.
What happened in Pyongyang
During the summit, Xi pledged what was described as unconditional support for North Korea’s interests. The leaders focused their discussions on deepening strategic coordination and cooperation between their two nations.
The last time Xi set foot on North Korean soil was in June 2019, when the two leaders met in Pyongyang ahead of the G20 summit in Osaka. Between 2018 and 2019, Kim and Xi held a series of meetings as North Korea navigated its now-stalled diplomatic engagement with the United States.
The two leaders did see each other in person more recently. In September 2025, Kim attended a military parade in Beijing, giving the pair a chance to engage face-to-face. But a full state visit to Pyongyang is a different beast entirely, carrying far more symbolic and diplomatic weight.
