What Xi Got in Pyongyang | The Capital Cable #136

On June 8–9, 2026, Chinese President Xi Jinping traveled to Pyongyang and met Kim Jong-un, his first visit to North Korea since 2019 and his first trip abroad of the year, timed to the 65th anniversary of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance. The readouts were warm and expansive, with pledges to widen cooperation in trade, agriculture, health, and technology. The most telling line was the one that never appeared: neither side mentioned denuclearization, a break from Xi's 2019 visit, and a pointed silence just weeks after Washington claimed a "shared goal" of denuclearizing North Korea that Beijing declined to echo. What does that omission signal about Beijing's priorities, and what did Kim gain from it? Join the CSIS Korea Chair for The Capital Cable #136, as hosts Mark Lippert and Victor Cha are joined by Jonathan Cheng, China Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, and Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Tokyo/Seoul Bureau Chief of The Washington Post, for a reporters' read on the visit and where China–North Korea relations head next. Jonathan Cheng is the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, overseeing coverage of the world's second-largest economy across politics, economics, business, technology and society. Previously, Jonathan was the Korea bureau chief for the Journal, running coverage of North Korea and South Korean politics and business. He is the author of "Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult," which was published by Alfred A. Knopf in April 2026. Jonathan lives in Beijing and has traveled to North Korea twice. Michelle Ye Hee Lee is The Washington Post's Tokyo bureau chief, reporting on Japan and the Korean Peninsula. Previously, she was a reporter on the national political enterprise and accountability team and a reporter for The Post's Fact Checker. Prior to joining The Post in 2014, she was a government accountability reporter at the Arizona Republic in Phoenix. This event is made possible by general support to CSIS. --------------------------------------------- A nonpartisan institution, CSIS is the top national security think tank in the world. Visit https://www.csis.org to find more of our work as we bring bipartisan solutions to the world's greatest challenges. Want to see more videos and virtual events? Subscribe to this channel and turn on notifications: https://cs.is/2dCfTve Follow CSIS on: • Twitter:   / csis   • Facebook:   / csis.org   • Instagram:   / csis