Why is Chinese President Xi Jinping visiting North Korea now?

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Monday is significant for one reason. It’s not that they are meeting: The two men met in Beijing just a year ago when China held a huge military parade to mark 80 years since Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allied forces, bringing an end to the second world war.What’s surprising is that Xi has travelled at all.

The Chinese leader has not visited Pyongyang since 2019, having steadily cut down his travel in recent years, and world leaders like United States President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin generally come to him these days.

“We need to remember that Xi Jinping has not really travelled abroad that much,” William Yang, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Northeast Asia, told Al Jazeera. “The growing trend is foreign leaders heading to Beijing to meet with him.

“For Xi Jinping to be the one who decides to travel to Pyongyang, it shows the level of significance that China attaches to this trip.”

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