Kim Hits the Rails

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly paid an unexpected visit to Beijing, arriving by armored train (the Kim family’s ancestral ride) in the Chinese capital yesterday.

The trip, if confirmed, would be Mr. Kim’s first outside of North Korea since he took power in 2011, and would mark the first time China has granted the impetuous young leader a meeting with President Xi Jinping.

It’s unclear which side asked for the meeting, but clearly the prospect of a high-stakes summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump this spring — as well as Kim’s upcoming planned encounter with South Korean President Moon Jae-in — has set things in motion between Beijing and Pyongyang.

What might each side want out of this heavily-cloaked meeting?

President Xi will certainly wish to align with — and influence — Kim ahead of any direct talks between Pyongyang and the US. And by welcoming Kim on his first foreign trip, Xi is signaling to the White House that the route to any deal with the US must still go through Beijing. Xi will also presumably press Kim to find out whether the North Korean leader is sincerely considering scaling down his nuclear ambitions, or whether his recent overtures are a play for time to develop more nuclear capability.

Kim, for his part, presumably wishes to show he’s still got the backing of his powerful patrons in Beijing, even though China has regarded him more as a headache than as an asset in recent years. And he’ll want to know what China will seek to extract, and underwrite, as part of any rapprochement with Washington. China’s position is crucial to any negotiating strategy for Kim.

Again, Kim may not, in fact, be in Beijing — we will know more soon. But if he is, it would mark a potentially significant turning point in one of the most intractable global security challenges today.

More from GZERO Media

​U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2025. ​U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2025.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2025.
REUTERS/Carlos Barria

During a speech in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, Donald Trump announced a universal 10% tariff on all US imports, 25% tariffs on foreign-made cars and parts, as well as a naughty list of trading partners that were hit with “reciprocal tariffs” on top – to the tune of 20% for the EU, 54% for China, and 46% for Vietnam, to name a few of the hardest-hit.

Palestinians travel in vehicles between the northern and southern Gaza Strip along the Rashid Road on April 2, 2025.

Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Reuters

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel was seizing more territory in Gaza to “divide up” the besieged enclave. He spoke as Israeli forces increased the intensity of their assault on Hamas in Gaza, which resumed two weeks ago after phase one of the ceasefire agreed to in January ended.

Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, tour the US military's Pituffik Space Base in Greenland on March 28, 2025.
JIM WATSON/Pool via REUTERS

How much would it cost for the United States to maintain Greenland as its territory? And what are the revenue possibilities from the Arctic island’s natural resources? Those are two questions the White House is reportedly looking into in the surest sign yet that Trump’s interest in Greenland is genuine.

Protesters demanded the ouster of South Korean President Yoon in central Seoul on March 29, 2025.
Lee Jae-Won/AFLO via Reuters

South Korea’s Constitutional Court will tie the legal bow on what has been a tumultuous period for the country as it rules Friday on whether to formally dismiss or reinstate impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol.

After voters elected her to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, liberal candidate Judge Susan Crawford celebrates with Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge Ann Walsh Bradley at her election night headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 1, 2025.

REUTERS/Vincent Alban

Republicans expanded their lean House majority after a pair of special elections in Florida, but a conservative candidate lost badly in a Wisconsin judicial race — despite a huge cash injection from Elon Musk.