China’s Foreign Minister arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday, the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit North Korea in years as Beijing tries to mend fences with its nuclear-armed neighbour.
The two-day visit by Wang Yi follows a landmark inter-Korean summit and precedes a meeting between the North’s leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in coming weeks. Wang, who will meet his North Korean counterpart Ri Yong Ho during his stay, was greeted by vice foreign minister Ri Kil Song and other officials at Pyongyang airport.
The two top diplomats met in Beijing last month, days after Kim travelled to China for talks with President Xi Jinping.
It was Kim’s first overseas trip since he took power in 2011 and came amid signs of a diplomatic thaw.
Wang is the first Chinese foreign minister to visit the North since 2007, a lapse that highlights the rough patch that relations between the allies have gone through in recent years.
China — North Korea’s sole diplomatic ally and economic benefactor — has supported a series of United Nations sanctions against the North over its nuclear and missile programmes.