China appears to be opening up talks with its formerly close ally, North Korea, in the very near future. It’s a development that has plenty of global eyes watching as the nuclear crisis in North Korea continues to escalate.

A senior Chinese diplomat will travel to North Korea on Friday as a “special envoy” of Chinese president Xi Jinping amid growing pressure on Pyongyang to curtail its nuclear and missile program.

The move comes after US President Donald Trump wrapped up his 13-day Asia trip, where he called for more diplomatic measures to be applied to North Korea, singling out China to do more.

President Donald Trump is applying a surprisingly diplomatic tack to the situation with a series of tweets this morning.

First, came tweets that the UCLA basketball players who were released and allowed to return home this week (after being arrested for shoplifting) should thank Chinese President Xi Jinping for their release (he previously called on the players to thank him).

Then, came this tweet.

China is sending an Envoy and Delegation to North Korea – A big move, we'll see what happens!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 16, 2017

For Trump, it’s an interesting play. This is a level of diplomacy that we don’t really see from him, but it appears to be a sign that he’s going to put a lot of trust in China to help resolve the situation with North Korea.

China and North Korea used to be close, mind you, but in recent years the Kim Jong dynasty has become more and more erratic in its behavior, and under Kim Jong Un, the threats have become more problematic.

Donald Trump appearing on the political scene as an opposing figure only served to speed up the escalation, and now the entire world is concerned over a nuclear crisis that, in all honesty, didn’t get here because of Trump. It just got here faster because of him.

China is most likely sending this envoy to open up talks for the moment. It’s a start at rebuilding that relationship, and a chance for China to re-exert influence in that region. That is one thing they definitely want, and it doesn’t hurt that keeping North Korea under control keeps American eyes off Asia.