Chinese President Xi Jinping's two-day visit to North Korea was the first by a Chinese leader in 14 years. Chinese president Xi Jinping will make his first state visit to North Korea this week in an attempt to defuse tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, months after the last denuclearisation summit ended in failure. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Xi, the first Chinese leader to visit North Korea in 14 years, would meet the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, on Thursday and Friday. North Korea’s official KCNA also announced the visit, but gave no details. “Both sides will exchange views on the [Korean] peninsula situation, and push for new progress in the political resolution of the peninsula issue,” CCTV said of Xi’s visit, which coincides with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and North Korea.
While North Korea has not tested nuclear weapons or long-range missiles since Kim’s doomed summit with Donald Trump in Hanoi in February, it has resumed tests of smaller weapons and warned of “truly undesired consequences” if the US is not more flexible. The Hanoi summit broke down amid disagreements over how far the North should go in dismantling its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. Washington has demanded that North Korea make verifiable progress toward giving up its nuclear weapons before any sanctions are lifted, while the North says the US has failed to reward it for the steps it has already taken. The White House said Xi’s visit proved that the world’s focus was still on North Korean denuclearisation. “Our goal is to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearisation of (North Korea) as agreed to by Chairman Kim,” a White House official told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
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