A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
China is extending a summitry streak. Having met with both President Trump and Russia's president, Putin, last month, China's leader, Xi Jinping, is now in North Korea, his first visit there in seven years. Now, a lot has changed, especially the North's growing nuclear arsenal. NPR's Anthony Kuhn joins us from Seoul to give us details. So, Anthony, I mean, this is Xi's first overseas trip of the year, coming on the heels of summits with two major world powers. What does that tell us?
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Well, one big thing that changed is that in 2024, North Korea signed a mutual defense pact with Russia. It named Russia as its top foreign policy priority, and North Korea sent troops to Russia to help it fight Ukraine. So Xi is going in part to restore ties with Pyongyang on the 65th anniversary of their 1961 mutual defense pact. I talked to Seong-Hyon Lee, who's an associate at Harvard University's Asia Center. And here's what he said about it.
SEONG-HYON LEE: By sequencing this Pyongyang trip immediately after his summits with President Trump and Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping is positioning himself as an indispensable hub of Eurasian security.
KUHN: Now, what Lee is saying is - he doesn't mean Xi is going to Pyongyang as a mediator or a broker for the U.S, South Korea or any other country. He's really going to assert his veto power over any security arrangements in his neighborhood and make it clear that no deals should be made that hurt China's interests.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, Trump said after meeting Xi that they both agreed on denuclearizing North Korea. Is that one of Xi's chief concerns?
KUHN: It was until 2019. Xi mentioned it many times then, but he has not mentioned it recently. And that leads some experts to conclude that Xi now tacitly accepts North Korea's nuclear status, not because he likes having another nuclear-armed neighbor but because it helps him by distracting the U-S. And Kim Jong Un, meanwhile, has been sending the message for quite some time that the window for denuclearizing North Korea has slammed shut. And he underlined this message last week by visiting a nuclear fuel plant that was previously unknown to the outside world, and by saying that he is rapidly expanding production of nuclear fuel and missiles. And Kim Jong Un's sister also disputed Trump's assertion that he and Xi Jinping had agreed on the goal of denuclearization.
MARTÍNEZ: That sounds like Kim is confident and maybe not under pressure to make concessions.
KUHN: Yeah. You could say that. This - Xi's visit is definitely a diplomatic gain for Kim, and his improved ties with Russia give him some leverage over Xi. But North Korea is still reliant on China for more than 90% of its trade. And Kim also appears confident about his growing role in what is not exactly a formal alliance or a bloc, but at least a group of like-minded nations that includes China, Russia and Iran. And Kim has also publicly said that he's pleased that he made the right choice about not negotiating away his nuclear arsenal and thereby avoiding Iran's fate.
MARTÍNEZ: Anthony, could Xi's visit do anything to resume negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea?
KUHN: Well, President Trump has said he's willing to meet with Kim. Both he and Kim emphasized their personal connection from summits they held from 2017 to 2019. So while another Kim-Trump summit is theoretically still possible, neither side seems to see it as a priority, and there are no signs of it happening anytime soon.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Anthony Kuhn joining us from Seoul. Anthony, thanks.
KUHN: Thanks, A.
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