North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly begged Chinese President Xi Jinping to bring an early end to the crippling sanctions on his country shortly after the historic Singapore summit with President Donald Trump.

“We are feeling great pain due to economic sanctions,” the young North Korean leader told his senior Chinese counterpart during a state visit. “Now that we have concluded the US-North Korea summit in success, I would like (China) to work toward early lifting of the sanctions.”

Xi told Kim that he would make the “utmost effort” to do so, according to Japan’s Yomirui Shimbun, citing multiple sources in both China and North Korea. Kim’s conversation with Xi took place during the young despot’s third trip to China on June 19, one week after the June 12 Singapore summit, where Trump emphasized that maximum pressure would end only after North Korea took concrete steps towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. (RELATED: Kim Jong Un Visits China For The Third Time In Three Months)

While China has stated that it intends to uphold sanctions and that it is committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Beijing does not share America’s strategic vision for the region.

Shortly after Kim’s trip to China, Trump told reporters that the China-North Korea border is “getting a little weaker now,” a reference to increased bilateral trade and a sign of a breakdown in sanctions implementation. “We have to get him to keep it tough,” the president said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged Wednesday at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing that the U.S. has seen “a modest amount” of backsliding on sanctions enforcement from China. North Korea is being allowed to crawl out of diplomatic and economic isolation, killing off the maximum pressure strategy and effectively eliminating any impetus for the North to denuclearize.

As is, Kim’s previous commitments to denuclearize, which are as questionable as those his father made, are already suspect.

North Korea has increased the production of fuel for the making of nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites in recent months, NBC reported Friday evening, citing more than a dozen American officials. (RELATED: US Intelligence Suspects North Korea Is Producing Nuclear Fuel At Secret Sites Despite Talks Of Peace And Denuclearization)

Satellite images from June 21 reveal that North Korea has also been making improvements to the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, North Korea watchdog 38 North revealed Tuesday. (RELATED: North Korea Improving A Key Nuclear Research Facility At ‘Rapid Pace’)

U.S. intelligence officials believe that North Korea does not intend to surrender its nuclear arsenal, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Instead, officials suspect the North intends to conceal its weapons at secret facilities.

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