Li Zhanshu, China's parliament chairman, will visit Pyongyang as a special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping to take part in events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the founding of North Korea, a spokesperson for the International Department of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Committee said in a statement on Tuesday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) Li Zhanshu, China's parliament chairman, will visit Pyongyang as a special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping to take part in events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the founding of North Korea, a spokesperson for the International Department of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Committee said in a statement on Tuesday.
"At the invitation of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Li Zhanshu, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National Congress, acting as the special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, will lead a delegation to visit Pyongyang on September 8 and take part in the upcoming 70th National Day celebrations in North Korea," the statement said.
Earlier media reports suggested North Korea invited Xi to visit Pyongyang and take part in the National Day celebrations.
Bilateral relations between Beijing and Pyongyang began deteriorating after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took office in late 2012 and rapidly advanced the country's nuclear arms program. However, the North Korean leader has been on a diplomatic offensive to mend bilateral ties since the beginning of this year, visiting Beijing for the first time in late March, shortly after US President Donald Trump agreed to meet with him in Singapore in June.
The North Korean leader paid a second visit to Dalian in eastern China in May to meet with Xi.
As the United States struggled to make substantial progress in denuclearization negotiations with North Korea following the Trump-Kim Summit in Singapore, Trump lashed out against China and accused the country of attempting to disrupt peace talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
