Vice-President Xi Jinping will pay a goodwill visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in two weeks' time, announced Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang yesterday.
The three-day visit, beginning on June 17, is at the invitation of the Workers' Party of Korea and the DPRK government.
It will be Xi's first overseas trip after being elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in March.
It is also the highest-ranking visit to Pyongyang by a Chinese official since President Hu Jintao went there in October 2005.
Pyongyang is the first leg of Xi's five-Asian-nation tour, which will also take him to Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Yemen. The whole trip will be wrapped up on June 25.
Xi is expected to meet with DPRK's key leaders possibly including Kim Jong-il and pass on thanks for the messages of sympathy over last month's deadly Sichuan earthquake
Qin said the two sides would talk about the bilateral relationship and regional and international issues of common concern in a bid to push forward the traditional Sino-DPRK friendship.
Xi's choice of making the DPRK the first country he visits as vice-president has been widely seen as the great importance China has attached to building a healthy and strong relationship with the country.
"China will continue to strive to develop friendly neighborly relations with the DPRK," Qin said, adding bilateral trade volume reached $1.97 billion last year, 16.1 percent up from the previous year.
Source: China Daily
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