I think he’s only visited the DPRK twice (once as Vice President, once as President) which is honestly crazy given the main way in and out of the DPRK has always been through China. You would think every 5/10 years a visit would have for an anniversary of bilateral relationships or something.

The last visit to the DPRK by a Chinese President was Xi Jinping in 2019, and the previous visit before that was Hu Jintao in October 2005. They have been incredibly rare in recent decades!

Not if you’re visiting with a tourist visa. The Chinese videos you see inside of the DPRK are from international students who are not barred from entering the DPRK. Business visa holders are also able to enter.

I think since the pandemic closure only Russian citizens have visited the DPRK on a tourist visa, as well as anyone who went to Rason for the brief period of time it was open. Even the Pyongyang marathon visitors were given an athletes visa or something different from a tourist visa.

Belarus are working on having their citizens able to enter (if they aren’t already able to) on a tourist visa but they’re also working on a visa-free scheme for Belarus citizens visiting the DPRK for tourism. I doubt China would go that far but if they did that would be huge.

And this is off the back of a series of visits to Beijing by leaders across the globe. So much so that it seems to have been noticed by media outlets as a shift in world diplomacy. And now that the question has been raised as to what will be the first country Xi Jinping visits, the answer has finally been put forth - the DPRK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD-zuO4NrzE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76JnSyDZs9I

Based on the photos from the Singapore MFA’s visit to Pyongyang, I’m hopeful we will see a similar level of importance placed into this summit as the 2024 Putin Summit and the March Lukashenko Summit. I have a gut feeling DPRK tourism will open to Chinese citizens this year as a pilot before the flood gates are opened to the world next year.

100%. Japan, the Philippines, the ROC and the ROK are all attempting to militarise in an effort to encircle China, and Korea being this big boogieman manufactured by the west is being propped up as an evil Japan must protect itself from.

It’ll be interesting to see how quickly Korea can modernise its navy fleet in preparation for an inevitable confrontation.

But it remains unclear whether these benefits are spreading to the majority of the population living in rural areas.

Hmm, if only there was an infographic showing all the rural areas that have been modernized as a direct result of the 20x10 Regional Development Policy… if only… https://imgur.com/a/2tYC5yx