Friendship or leverage: Why is Xi Jinping going to North Korea?

Article excerpt

Xi Jinping's first visit to North Korea in 14 years signals Beijing's effort to tighten control over an increasingly unpredictable ally at a moment of rising U.S.-China tensions. The trip underscores a strategic puzzle: North Korea matters enormously to China's regional power, yet remains stubbornly independent and armed with nuclear weapons. Beijing wants to prevent Pyongyang from drifting too close to Moscow or destabilizing the peninsula in ways that could invite U.S. intervention. The visit blends diplomatic theater, state pageantry, symbolic gestures, with hard leverage: China controls much of North Korea's trade and fuel, making the relationship fundamentally asymmetrical despite the rhetoric of brotherhood.