China's top political adviser to visit North Korea this week
by Thomas Maresca · UPISEOUL, July 14 (UPI) -- A delegation led by China's top political adviser Wang Huning will visit North Korea this week, state-run media reported Tuesday, the latest in a series of high-level exchanges between the longtime allies.
Wang, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, will visit from Wednesday through Friday, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency and North Korea's Korean Central News Agency.
Xinhua said he will lead a party and government delegation on an official goodwill visit at the invitation of the Workers' Party of Korea and the North Korean government. Neither side disclosed further details.
The visit follows several recent high-level engagements marking the 65th anniversary of the China-North Korea Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, concluded on July 11, 1961.
The treaty, signed by then-Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, includes a mutual defense clause requiring each side to come to the other's aid in the event of an armed attack.
Last week, North Korean Premier Pak Thae Song visited Beijing for anniversary events, where he held meetings with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and President Xi Jinping.
South Korea's Unification Ministry said it was the first North Korean government delegation dispatched to Beijing to commemorate the treaty anniversary in seven years.
The visit also comes a month after Xi traveled to Pyongyang for his first summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in seven years. The two leaders pledged to strengthen strategic communication and expand bilateral cooperation, while reaffirming their traditional alliance.
China remains North Korea's largest trading partner and principal economic lifeline, and has repeatedly faced accusations from the United States and U.N. experts of failing to enforce international sanctions against Pyongyang. The relationship appeared to lose some momentum in recent years, however, as North Korea deepened military cooperation with Russia following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Analysts say the connection with Russia has given Kim greater leverage in dealings with Beijing by reducing his dependence on China as Pyongyang's sole major patron.
Kim and Xi also exchanged congratulatory letters Saturday marking the treaty's 65th anniversary, pledging to deepen strategic cooperation and describing bilateral ties as entering a new phase.
"The DPRK-China friendly and cooperative relations ... are now developing at a new strategic level and making a great contribution to firmly protecting the sovereignty, security and development interests of the two countries," Kim wrote, according to KCNA.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.
Xi described the treaty as the political and legal foundation of the countries' "friendship forged in blood" and pledged to strengthen strategic communication and bilateral cooperation amid what he called profound global changes, Xinhua reported.
He said last month's summit had provided "strategic guidance and a new blueprint for the development of China-DPRK relations in the new era."
Neither side publicly mentioned North Korea's nuclear weapons program or denuclearization in the official readouts of last month's summit. While Beijing has historically supported the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the issue has largely disappeared from its official statements in recent years.