 Here are details of Kim's summits so far.
Weeks after the North sent athletes and officials to take part in the Winter Olympics in the South, Kim arrives unannounced in Beijing on March 26, 2018 on board his private train to meet Xi. The meeting ensures that his first encounter as leader with a foreign head of state is with the North's longstanding diplomatic backer and main business partner, and resets years of deteriorating relations between the allies. Days later, the two Koreas announce the date for the first Kim-Moon summit. - Panmunjom I: Shine on Kim and Moon - In a blaze of publicity, Kim and Moon meet on April 27 at Panmunjom, the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula, and shake hands over the border before Moon steps unscripted into the North and the two men cross hand-in-hand to the South. A day of discussions follows -- including an extended open-air woodland conversation with no one else present -- ending in a farewell ceremony where the leaders hold hands to watch a sound-and-light show. They agree to pursue a permanent peace treaty and the complete denuclearisation of their divided peninsula. - Back in China: Second Kim-Xi meeting - Only six weeks after his first meeting with Xi, Kim flies unannounced to the Chinese port city of Dalian as he prepares for the first-ever summit between North Korea and the United States. During two days of talks on May 7 and 8, Kim and Xi bask in the sun on a seaside stroll, and afterwards Xi phones Trump to urge him to take Pyongyang's security concerns into consideration, as Beijing reaffirms its influence in the diplomatic shuffle. - Panmunjom II: Moon to the rescue - After Trump abruptly declares the cancellation of his summit with Kim, the two Koreas' leaders head to Panmunjom on May 26 for an impromptu summit as Moon seeks to salvage the process. Moon and Kim greet each other with broad smiles and brotherly hugs before sitting down for two hours of talks. The next day, Moon says Kim is committed to his summit with Trump and the US president announces that plans for the meeting are moving along "very nicely". - Singapore: Trump meets Kim - In the sumptuous setting of a luxury Singapore hotel, Trump and Kim exchange smiles and handshakes before the world's cameras as they hold a landmark summit on June 12, just months after they were trading insults and threats of war. Kim agrees to a vaguely worded pledge on denuclearisation while Trump tells a post-summit press conference he will suspend "very provocative" US joint military exercises with South Korea. - Beijing again: Pledging loyalty - Days after the Singapore meeting, Kim is back in Beijing to report on developments to Xi on June 19 and 20. Kim is greeted by a military honour guard and cheering children at the Great Hall of the People as the two leaders begin two days of carefully choreographed displays of amity. - Pyongyang: Moon goes North - On September 18 to 20, Moon visits Pyongyang with an entourage of top business moguls for his third summit with Kim, despite a deadlock in nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington. Kim offers to shutter a missile-testing site and a key nuclear facility at Yongbyon if the US takes unspecified "corresponding measures". In a post-summit presser Moon insists Kim will visit Seoul during 2018, and the two leaders wrap up their three-day meeting with a symbolic hike up Mount Paektu, the spiritual birthplace of the Korean nation. - Beijing 2019 - Kim's Seoul visit does not come to pass by the end of 2018, despite widespread speculation in South Korea, as progress stalls between the North and the US. But a week into 2019, Kim and his wife Ri Sol Ju travel to Beijing on board his private train.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's surprise trip to China could herald a new round of summitry on and about the peninsula, analysts say, but may also be an attempt to pressure US President Donald Trump as negotiations between them falter.
Discussions between Pyongyang and Washington over the North's nuclear arsenal have stalled since Kim and Trump's high-profile summit in Singapore, with the US insisting that sanctions must remain in place until it gives up its weapons, and the North demanding an immediate easing.
In his New Year's address -- always a key moment in the North Korean political calendar -- Kim said that if Washington persisted with its approach, "we may be compelled to find a new way for defending the sovereignty of the country and the supreme interests of the state".
With his visit to China, "Kim is eager to remind the Trump administration that he does have diplomatic and economic options besides what Washington and Seoul can offer," said Harry Kazianis of the Center for the National Interest in Washington.
The US should be "quite concerned" by any effort by Pyongyang to strengthen ties with Beijing, he added, as almost all North Korean trade flows through China and any improvement in relations would weaken the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" strategy.
With US and Chinese officials meeting in Beijing to address a trade row that has roiled global markets, he said, "the timing could not be any better" for the Chinese side. "It shows Beijing clearly has a North Korea card to play if it sees fit."
Chinese forces played an integral role defending the North during the 1950-53 Korean War, and Beijing remains Pyongyang's key diplomatic backer and trade partner.
It has always feared the collapse of its neighbour, which would threaten floods of refugees streaming onto its territory and the prospect of US troops stationed on its border in a unified Korea, but in recent years became increasingly frustrated with its nuclear antics.
That changed last spring, when Kim ended six years as a diplomatic recluse to go to Beijing and pay his respects to Xi in his first overseas trip as leader.
A series of visits have followed in both directions -- although Xi has yet to reciprocate with a trip to Pyongyang -- along with three summits between Kim and the South's President Moon Jae-in, and Beijing lent Kim a plane to travel to Singapore.
- 'Sanctions relief' -
At their meeting Kim and Trump signed a vague pledge to work towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula in a blaze of publicity, but the two sides have since disagreed over what that means.
Kim did not visit Seoul by the end of last year, despite South Korea's Moon suggesting he would do so, but speculation of a second Kim-Trump summit to try and break the deadlock has mounted.
A location for the meeting was being negotiated, the US president said at the weekend, leading sceptics to express hopes that its substance and outcomes were also being discussed.
Kim's Beijing trip was an indication he could soon travel to Seoul or hold a second summit with Trump, said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute in Seoul.
Last year Kim visited China ahead of his summits with both Trump and Moon, he pointed out.
The accompanying delegation, he noted, included Kim Yong Chol, North Korea's counterpart to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in talks, suggesting that "sanctions relief for Pyongyang" would be on the agenda.
Under Moon, the South has pursued engagement with the North, and analysts in Seoul argued that Chinese concessions could improve the prospects of a deal.
"North Korea could feel insecure or threatened if it gives up its nuclear programmes entirely," said Koh Yu-hwan, professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University.
"But if Beijing promises Pyongyang that it will provide economic assistance and guarantee its regime security if Pyongyang abandons atomic weapons, it could make the North feel more secure," he told AFP.
Beijing shared Washington's aim of denuclearising Pyongyang, he added, and was "not trying to interfere in the ongoing process between the North and US".
Despite pledges by the Koreas last year to pursue a declaration that the Korean War -- which ended only in an armistice -- is over, little progress has been made, let alone on a full peace treaty.
Beijing sides with Pyongyang on formally ending the three-year conflict, but some suspect North Korea wants to use that to demand US troops in South Korea are withdrawn from the peninsula.
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