Xi's planned N.K. trip partly driven by desire to weaken Russia-N.K. ties, U.S. calls for Chinese cooperation: expert

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Yonhap) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming trip to North Korea appears to be partially driven by Beijing's desire to weaken deepening ties between Moscow and Pyongyang and the United States' calls for cooperation in dealing with the recalcitrant regime, a U.S. expert said Friday.

Victor Cha, president of the geopolitics and foreign policy department and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) made the remarks during a CSIS podcast, after Pyongyang's state media reported this week that Xi will visit the North on Monday and Tuesday in what would be his first trip there since 2019.

Xi's planned trip follows his separate summits with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing last month, and his visit to South Korea from late October to early November to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

"I think part of what is driving this (trip) is Trump in the sense that ... we would admonish the Chinese side all the time, 'Look, you've got to help us on North Korea because if you don't, you know, Japan and South Korea are going to respond. Your neighbor is just going to get a lot worse if you don't work with us on North Korea,'" he said.

This photo, taken on Sept. 19, 2025, shows Victor Cha, president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), speaking during a press meeting in Seoul. (Yonhap)

He was referring to the shifting security landscape in which Seoul seeks to bolster its defense spending and secure stronger military capabilities through its push to build nuclear-powered submarines in cooperation with the U.S., and Tokyo accelerating its military buildup.

"Japan is doing all this stuff (to strengthen its military). Even, Korea, under a progressive president, is very aggressive on arms exports, and they are making deals like shipbuilding, nuclear submarines, and potentially enrichment and (spent nuclear fuel) reprocessing with the U.S.," he said. "So (the Chinese) are seeing their environment changing."

Cha also pointed out that the U.S. under Trump will not be the "patron ally that puts the cap on the bottle," meaning that Trump would not care about the Asian allies' military beef-up.

The Trump administration has been encouraging Seoul and Tokyo to strengthen their defense capabilities and reduce their security reliance on the U.S., as it has stressed a policy priority of "burden-sharing" with allies and partners.

Xi's planned visit to North Korea would also be China's "answe