Chairman Xi goes to Pyongyang, accompanied by his defense minister

Why Xi Jinping Had to Go to Pyongyang

Protocol dictates that foreign leaders travel to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping. When the Chinese leader decides to travel abroad to Pyongyang, the world takes notice. This visit on June 8 and 9 was the first trip by Xi to North Korea in seven years and his first overseas journey of 2026. The timing is critical. This summit followed Xi’s meetings with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in May. If the global order is a chessboard, North Korea is the mos…

Chairman Xi goes to Pyongyang, accompanied by his defense minister

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, June 17, 2026 The lavish welcome China’s Leader Xi Jinping received on his recent visit to North Korea stylistically underscored a deep and comradely relationship between the two communist regimes. Xi’s trip to Pyongyang, his first in seven years to the secluded socialist state, was nonetheless more about […]