Xi Jinping Left With Headlines. Kim Left With Leverage.

This March, North Korea amended its constitution and removed the word socialist from the constitution's official title. Historically, North Korea claimed to be three things, a socialist revolution, the legitimate government of all Korea, and a state guided by Marxism-Leninism ideology. Kim has gradually watered down all three. Reunification with South Korea has effectively been abandoned. Marxism and communism are barely mentioned compared with previous decades. And the constitution now focuses heavily on North Korea as a separate sovereign nuclear state ruled by the Kim family. So if you viewed from that perspective, Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping are moving in very different ideological directions. Kim Jong-un is turning North Korea into a family-run nationalist authoritarian state that happens to have communist origins. And Xi Jinping is trying to turn communist ideology into the foundation of his personal rule. One is moving away from communism, the other is moving deeper into it. Kim Jong-un may be many things, but one thing he's not is Xi Jinping's communist little brother. So what exactly did Xi Jinping get out of this trip to Pyongyang? Well, I would argue that there were four takeaways. First, Xi Jinping got a geopolitical photo op. This was his first overseas trip of 2026. And before leaving Beijing, he had already hosted two presidents, President Trump and President Putin. Now with Kim Jong-un, he has completed a full diplomatic circuit involving all three major players, powers surrounding Northeast Asia. In a sense, Xi has now checked all three boxes, Trump, Putin, and Kim. The message Beijing wanted to send was fairly straightforward. Any future adjustment to the security order on the Korean peninsula cannot happen without China at the table. And the intended audience was primarily Washington, Tokyo and Seoul. During his visit, Xi Jinping published a signed article in North Korea's official newspaper where he indirectly criticized Japan. So by using North Korea's media as his platform, Xi Jinping was essentially trying to send a message to Tokyo by using Pyongyang's loudspeaker. All right, second, he got a chance to reclaim his seat at the table. Now over the past two years, Russia and North Korea are getting closer and closer. The relations have warmed dramatically. And Kim and Putin have built a much closer partnership, particularly since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Beijing is increasingly concerned about Kim's drift towards Putin. And China feared of being sidelined in this triangular relationship. So part of Xi Jinping's objective was to restore balance at the minimal. The visit reminded the world that China-North Korea relations remain active and normal, and that Beijing has not been pushed completely to the sidelines. And the third is Xi Jinping secured tangible economic commitments. He pledged expanded cooperation in trade, agriculture, technology, transportation, and infrastructure. It will help China with its surplus capacity. Both sides also discussed restoring flights and passenger rail services. Because for nearly three years during the pandemic, North Korea effectively closed its borders to China. Tourism between China and North Korea almost disappeared. Now before COVID, Chinese tourists accounted for, you know how much? Roughly 90% of North Korea's foreign visitors and represented a major source of hard currency for the Kim family, for Pyongyang. Now both sides appear interested in reopening those channels. Fourth, Xi Jinping received another public endorsement of the one-China principle. As part of the diplomatic exchange, Kim once again reaffirmed support for Beijing's position on Taiwan and the one-China principle. Now let's be honest, this is not some game-changing breakthrough. North Korea has supported Beijing's position on Taiwan for decades. But at this point, every public endorsement counts for Beijing. Every statement becomes another piece of evidence when Beijing can claim the international support for its Taiwan policy. So it's limited in terms of substance, but the symbolism is still useful. So in my view, those are the four main things Xi Jinping walked away from Pyongyang. Let's talk about what did Kim Jong-un get. And this is where the balance sheet starts looking very different. First, he got Xi Jinping to come to Pyongyang. That alone is significant. It's a victory for him. Because the first international trip of the leader of the world's second largest economy in 2026 was to Pyongyang. And he appeared before the cameras under North Korean banners and North Korean choreography. The images broadcast around the world reinforced Kim's preferred narrative that North Korea is not isolated. It's a country that major powers are competing to court. So for a regime that has spent years under sanctions and diplomatic pressure, that symbolism is valuable and enormously valuable. Second, Kim successfully kept the nuclear issue off the table. Throughout the visit, the focus remained on friendship, cooperation, and regional stability. Exactly the narrative Pyongyang wanted. Not once did North Korea make any meaningful concession on its nuclear program. And not once did Kim indicate any willingness to revisit denuclearization. So he managed to host China's top leader while giving ground on virtually nothing that mattered most to Beijing, Washington, Seoul, or Tokyo. And that's a significant diplomatic achievement. Third, he secured economic benefits. And this is important to North Korea. China pledged expanded cooperation. Discussions also included restoring flights, passenger rail, and broader economic exchanges. So in other words, Kim gained access to additional Chinese resources, investment, trade, and economic support without surrendering any major strategic asset in return. And so from his perspective, that's an excellent deal. Fourth, he preserved his relationship with Russia. And this may be very important for him or for the region. Nothing that emerged from this summit suggests any reduction in North Korea's growing partnership with Moscow. Russia-North Korea cooperation continues to expand. And at the same time, China is actively trying to strengthen ties with Pyongyang. That means Kim has successfully maintained both tracks simultaneously. And this was not the case for North Korea in the past. So he now doesn't have to choose between Beijing and Moscow. Instead, he can continue balancing the two powers against each other, extracting benefits from both sides while remaining dependent on neither. So for a small state sitting between larger powers, that's about as comfortable a position as one can hope to achieve. And so that's why many people believe Kim may have been the bigger winner in this summit. Xi Jinping demonstrated influence, but that's only visual, while Kim demonstrated leverage. That's true strength. Xi Jinping showed that China still matters. Kim showed that everyone still needs North Korea. Xi Jinping left Pyongyang with photographs, statements, and diplomatic symbolism. And Kim walked away with same thing, photographs, symbolism, economic commitments, continued Russian support, and no meaningful concessions on the nuclear issue. So this is a very favorable outcome for Pyongyang. That's why Kim got the better deal.