A summit between President Moon Jae-in and Chinese President Xi Jinping has begun.

Moon and Xi sat down in Beijing on Monday morning local time for their sixth summit overall and first since June on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting in Osaka, Japan.

The summit was arranged amid growing tension on the Korean Peninsula ahead of the year-end deadline set by the North for the United States to show more flexibility in denuclearization talks.

Moon is expected to ask China to play a role in persuading Pyongyang to refrain from provocations. Attention is also drawn to whether the two leaders will discuss fundamental solutions to tensions over Seoul's deployment of the U.S.' THAAD anti-missile defense system. 

After the summit and an ensuing luncheon with Xi, Moon will head to the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu to participate in a trilateral summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday. 

It will be the countries’ first three-way summit since one in Tokyo in May last year.