Kim Jong Un’s one-day trip to the Chinese border city of Dandong over the weekend was a departure from his tried-and-tested approach to diplomacy, marking the first time the North Korean leader has visited a foreign country without holding a summit with his counterpart.

For Kim, trips outside the DPRK offer the chance to stand shoulder to shoulder with the most powerful people and show the world — as well as his citizens — that he is their equal.

Yet rather than meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he settled for talks with Beijing’s top