China's top diplomat Wang Yi will visit North Korea this week, the foreign ministry in Beijing said, just days after ground-breaking talks between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korea's president Moon Jae-in.
"State councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi will visit the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) from May 2nd to 3rd at the invitation of DPRK's foreign minister Ri Yong-ho, " the ministry said in a brief statement on its website and also carried on the official Xinhua news agency.
China fought alongside North Korea in the Korean War (1950-53) and is its main economic sponsor.
In a sign of how important the relationship is – they were once described as “close as lips and teeth” – Mr Kim chose China for its first international trip since taking office, visiting Beijing in March.
At the same time, relations have become somewhat strained over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, as China fears it will bring instability to the region and could boost the standing of the US in Asia through its ally South Korea.
Friday’s inter-Korean summit led to a pledge for “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula, to “completely cease all hostile acts against each other” and also to strive towards a formal conclusion to the Korean War, which ended in armistice but without a peace treaty.
The South Koreans said that Mr Kim had told Mr Moon that he was prepared to shutter North Korea’s nuclear test site in May in full view of the outside world.
Since the summit, there has been an intense round of diplomatic activity. South Korea has already briefed the US and Japan.
Mr Kim is expected to meet US president Donald Trump in the coming weeks.
Mr Wang will become the first Chinese foreign minister to visit North Korea in more than a decade, but traditionally high-level visits between the two ideological allies involve senior communist cadres rather than ministers.
China has long had a leading role in diplomacy surrounding North Korea and its missile programme, hosting the long-stalled six-party talks also involving both Koreas, the US, Russia and Japan.
Beijing will be eager not to be sidelined by the recent closeness between the two Koreas and also by the interest taken by Mr Trump.
On Monday, South Korea said it would take down its high-decibel loudspeakers blasting propaganda into the North over the demilitarised zone (DMZ) between the two countries.
Choi Hyun-soo, a spokesman for the defence ministry, said the removal was a “rudimentary” step to build military trust between the two sides.
