Xi's North Korea visit aims to weaken Russia-Pyongyang ties, expert says

Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea Monday and Tuesday in his first trip since 2019, a move analysts say is driven by sustained U.S. pressure on Beijing and a Chinese bid to counter deepening military ties between Russia and Pyongyang, the Korea Times reported.

The trip signals growing unease in Beijing over North Korea's alignment with Moscow — and carries direct implications for Korean-American communities tracking Korean Peninsula security, as South Korea pursues nuclear submarines and Japan accelerates its military buildup with U.S. backing.

The visit, confirmed by Pyongyang's state media, follows Xi's back-to-back summits last month in Beijing with President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told a CSIS podcast the journey reflects a calculation long pressed by Washington.

"I think part of what is driving this (trip) is Trump in the sense that ... we would admonish the Chinese side all the time, 'Look, you've got to help us on North Korea because if you don't, you know, Japan and South Korea are going to respond. Your neighbor is just going to get a lot worse if you don't work with us on North Korea,'" Cha said, according to the Korea Times.

Cha said regional neighbors are already responding independent of Beijing's choices. "Japan is doing all this stuff (to strengthen its military). Even, Korea, under a progressive president, is very aggressive on arms exports, and they are making deals like shipbuilding, nuclear submarines, and potentially enrichment and (spent nuclear fuel) reprocessing with the U.S.," he said.

Cha described the visit as a characteristically low-cost Chinese diplomatic move. "Trying to get Trump and the North Koreans together again may be a way to try to attenuate the DPRK-Russia relationship to try to pull them away a little bit," he said, adding: "That sounds like a very Chinese way to deal with it because it's low-cost. You don't have to put a lot of skin in the game. It doesn't cost them materially, and if they are able to attenuate this tie that way without hurting their relationship with Russia, this might be the way to do it."

The trip's timing is complicated by Pyongyang's disclosure of a new nuclear material production facility just ahead of Xi's arrival. Edgard Kagan, former U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia, said on the same podcast: "The idea that they are rolling out a brand-new (nuclear facility) right before Xi Jinping comes, I am sure, is incredibly annoying to our Chinese friends."

Kim Jong-un last visited China in September 2025 for a Victory Day event. Xi is also expected to attend the APEC summit in South Korea in late October or early November.

With Xi expected in Pyongyang on Monday, analysts are watching whether the visit produces any public signal on North Korean denuclearization talks or a possible resumption of direct U.S.-North Korea diplomacy.