After seven years of studied distance, Xi Jinping’s state visit to North Korea on June 8–9 signals far more than a diplomatic reset. It is Beijing’s formal acknowledgment that the peninsula’s geopolitical gravity has shifted — and that China cannot afford to be an absentee patron any longer. When Xi Jinping stepped off his plane at Pyongyang International Airport on June 8, 2026, he was greeted by the full pageantry