Xi to hold rare talks with Kim cementing Beijing-Pyongyang ties in first overseas trip

China's news outlet informed on Friday that President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea following an invitation from Kim Jong Un.

Xi Jinping's first overseas trip in the last 7 years would mark a two-day visit from June 8-9, as ‌Beijing looks to reassert ties with Pyongyang, its only formal treaty ally.

The Chinese foreign ministry said Xi will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and exchange views on bilateral relations and issues of common concern.

"Both sides will use the visit as an opportunity to promote greater development of China-North Korea relations in keeping with the times," spokesperson Mao Ning told a press briefing.

Beijing-Pyongyang ties:

The two countries signed a cooperation and mutual assistance treaty 65 years ago, legally binding each to provide the other with military support if they came under attack.

Beijing has worked to draw Pyongyang back into its fold after the COVID-19 pandemic froze exchanges and Kim deepened ties with Moscow by sending troops and weapons to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"The message implicit from the Chinese side is ... we are still the principal actor when it comes to North Korea," said John Delury, a senior fellow of the Asia Society. "One of the audiences is Russia."

Friday's announcement by the international department of the ruling Chinese Communist Party follows Xi's summits in Beijing last month with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kim was a guest at a massive military parade in Beijing last September, traveling to the Chinese capital on his signature green armored train.

Passenger train services between the capitals resumed in March, after a six-year suspension ushered in by the pandemic, while Air China later restarted flights between them.

First overseas trip in 7 years:

Xi's visit to Pyongyang will be his first overseas ‌this year. The 72-year-old, who makes fewer trips abroad, last traveled internationally in late October to South Korea, where he also met Trump.

South Korea views the trip solely as high-level bilateral exchanges unaligned to Moscow, an official from the presidential Blue House said.

The Blue House said Seoul expects Beijing to continue its constructive role on peninsula issues.

Kim called for an "exponential" expansion of Pyongyang's atomic arsenal this week when he visited a new factory to make nuclear material, KCNA said.

Experts have linked Kim's site visit to the impending meeting with Xi. Before his September visit to Beijing as Kim inspected plans for a new intercontinental ballistic missile, the "Hwasong-20."

Since Xi became China's top leader in 2012, he has visited North Korea once and its southern neighbor twice.

He also visited Pyongyang in 2008 as vice president, meeting its then-leader Kim Jong Il, the father of the current leader.