Trump Wants Xi's Help to Arrange a New Meeting With Kim Jong-un
President Trump is expected to ask Chinese leader Xi Jinping to help arrange a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un when Xi visits Washington next week.
The request was reported on Sept. 18. It would make North Korea a central item in Xi's scheduled visit to the United States on Sept. 24, 2026. Intelligence Online That trip follows a summit between Trump and Xi in Beijing in May 2026. The two were set to meet again at the White House in September 2026.
Intelligence Online reported on Sept. 15 that China was preparing contingency plans, or backup venue options, for a Trump-Kim summit in four different cities, including one in North Korea. Intelligence Online The report places Beijing in an operational role, drafting venue options in advance of any political agreement to meet. It did not identify the other three cities.
The White House has said Trump and Xi confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea, meaning to eliminate its nuclear weapons program. The New York Times
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to meet Kim again. Kim has indicated openness to the idea. Trump restated it directly to South Korea on Aug. 25, 2025, when he said he wanted to meet Kim in 2025.
Reuters reported on Aug. 21, 2026 that Trump's overtures for a meeting with Kim later that year had drawn a frosty response from Pyongyang. Reuters
The broader context here is the mixed signal from Pyongyang. Kim's earlier openness and the August frosty response point in different directions. The current North Korean position is therefore unclear.
Beijing to Pyongyang
Xi traveled to Pyongyang in June 2026 for meetings with Kim. China and North Korea both announced that Xi would travel to North Korea. The Associated Press The trip was Xi's first visit in nearly seven years.
His previous summit in Pyongyang was in June 2019, when Kim hosted Xi. High-level visits of this kind require extensive preparation, much like an advance team mapping rooms and schedules before a large conference. They also create their own record of joint statements and pledges.
During the June visit, Xi vowed unwavering support for Kim. Reuters North Korean state media reported the pledge. The language was unconditional. It did not condition Chinese support on steps toward denuclearization.
In August 2025, Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin were set to join Xi in Beijing the following week. Trump, speaking that same month, said he was open to further trade talks with South Korea. The diplomacy around the Korean Peninsula has therefore involved Moscow, Seoul, Beijing, Washington and Pyongyang within a compressed calendar.
Washington next
The broader context here is sequencing and access. Washington has the demand for a leaders meeting. Beijing has regular access to Pyongyang. Pyongyang has the ability to delay. The June Xi-Kim meeting reestablished the China-North Korea channel just before the renewed Trump push for contact. The September Trump-Xi meeting tests whether that channel can be redirected toward a U.S.-North Korea meeting.
The practical question for negotiators is venue planning. Four-city contingency work suggests staff-level preparation for different security, logistics and political requirements. A site inside North Korea would carry very different implications for protocol, press access and leader risk than a third-country site. A U.S. venue and a Chinese venue would each allocate host advantages differently. Early venue work does not indicate agreement. It indicates an effort to shorten the timeline if agreement emerges.
In my view, the central tension is between stated alignment and divergent interests. The shared goal of denuclearization coexists with an explicit Chinese pledge of unwavering support for Kim. Those two positions can be reconciled in communiques. Reconciling them in a trilateral negotiating structure is harder. Each bilateral meeting, Trump-Xi in May, Xi-Kim in June, Trump-Xi in September, resets expectations for the next.
Looking ahead, the September meeting will clarify whether Xi is willing to act as facilitator and whether Pyongyang will accept that facilitation. Trump has made his preference clear. China has done the venue homework. Kim has alternated between openness and frost. The decision now sits with Pyongyang, and with what Washington and Beijing are prepared to put on the table in Washington next week.
