Xi-Obama Summit to Build Rapport as North Korea Beats Yuan

In April 2006, President George W. Bush rearranged the name cards at a White House lunch with Hu Jintao, seating the Chinese president next to him instead of across a table so they could talk privately.

Bush wanted to talk about North Korea. Days later, a Chinese diplomat visited Pyongyang to push dictator Kim Jong Il to return to nuclear talks. Within a year, the North agreed to shut down a reactor that made weapons-grade plutonium, recalled Paul Haenle, executive assistant to U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley at the time.