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Li will lead a government delegation from Thursday to Saturday
to attend events marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of
North Korea's ruling party, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said
Tuesday.
China has long been the North Korean government's most important
ally and source of support, though North Korean leader Kim Jong
Un has sought to balance that in recent years by building ties
with Russia. He has sent troops to help Moscow in its war
against Ukraine.
Russia is sending former President Dmitri Medvedev to this
week’s anniversary celebrations, North Korea’s official KCNA
news agency said Monday.
A statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry called China and
North Korea “traditional friends and neighbors" and said it is
“an unswerving strategic policy” of the Chinese government and
the ruling Communist Party “to maintain, consolidate and
develop” relations with North Korea.
Li is one of seven members of the Standing Committee of the
Communist Party's Politburo, the apex of power in China. As
premier, he is generally considered the No. 2 leader after
President Xi Jinping. Li has been representing China on more
foreign trips as the 72-year-old Xi curtails his travel
schedule.
Xi’s last visit to North Korea was in 2019, before the COVID-19
pandemic.
Vietnam's top leader, To Lam, will also visit North Korea this
week for the anniversary celebrations, the country's government
announced Monday. He is general secretary of the Communist
Party, the same leadership position held by Xi in China and Kim
in North Korea's Workers' Party.
It will be the first visit by a Vietnamese leader to North Korea
since 2007, Vietnam's state media said.
The president of Laos, Thongloun Sisoulith, will also attend,
KCNA said last week. He is general secretary of the Lao People’s
Revolutionary Party.
High-level contacts between China and North Korea have picked up
since last year. Zhao Leji, another member of the Politburo
Standing Committee, traveled to North Korea in April 2024 and
met Kim in the capital, Pyongyang. Kim visited China last month,
joining Russian President Vladimir Putin and others at a Chinese
military parade in Beijing.
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