US President Joe Biden is expected to use his final meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to urge him to dissuade North Korea from increasing its support for Russia's war on Ukraine.
The talks on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in Peru come just over two months before Biden leaves office and makes way for Republican President-elect Donald Trump.
It will be Biden's last check-in with Xi, someone the Democrat saw as his most consequential peer on the world stage.
Today, President Yoon Suk Yeol, Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru, and I convened in the spirit of Camp David to commemorate the progress we've made since 2023.— President Biden (@POTUS) The actions that we take together will continue to bolster regional and global peace and security well into the future. pic.twitter.com/ke8LG9jC0rNovember 15, 2024
With the final meeting on Saturday, officials say Biden will be looking for Xi to step up Chinese engagement to prevent an already dangerous moment with North Korea escalating further.
On Friday, Biden, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yul and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba condemned North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's decision to send thousands of troops to help Moscow repel Ukrainian forces who have seized territory in Russia's Kursk border region.
Biden called it "dangerous and destabilising co-operation".
White House officials also have expressed frustration with Beijing, which accounts for the vast majority of North Korea's trade, for not doing more to rein in Pyongyang.
Biden, Yoon and Ishiba spent most of their 50-minute discussion focused on the issue, agreeing it "should not be in Beijing's interest to have this destabilising cooperation in the region", an official said.
The North Koreans also have provided Russia with artillery and other munitions, according to American and South Korean intelligence officials.
The APEC talks in Peru come amid uncertainty over what to expect from new US leader Donald Trump. (AP PHOTO)
The US, Japan and South Korea have also expressed alarm over Pyongyang's stepped-up cadence of ballistic missile tests.
Kim ordered testing exercises in the lead-up to the November US election and is claiming progress on efforts to build capability to strike the US mainland.
Biden and Xi have much beyond North Korea to discuss, including China's indirect support for Russia, human rights issues, technology and Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy that Beijing claims as its own.
There is also uncertainty about what lies ahead in the US-China relationship under Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise to levy 60 per cent tariffs on Chinese imports.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials would advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing would likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they would face.