Foreign minister to visit DPRK this week

State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay a visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from Wednesday to Thursday at the invitation of DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho.

The upcoming trip, announced by Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang on Monday, is another in a series of recent high-level exchanges and contacts between Beijing and Pyongyang, including the visit to China in March of top DPRK leader Kim Jong-un.

During that visit, President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, reached a consensus with Kim on developing bilateral relations and on promoting the peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

Zhang Liangui, an expert on Korean studies at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said Wang's upcoming visit will enhance efforts at the working level to translate the consensus into reality. Zhang said that Pyongyang will likely brief Wang on the outcomes of the latest meeting between Kim and President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea.

The visit will reinforce mutual understanding at a time tensions on the Korean Peninsula are being eased, and it will be conducive to denuclearizing the peninsula, Zhang said.

Senior officials of the two sides have also maintained frequent contacts.

In early April in Beijing, Wang met and talked with Ri when the senior DPRK diplomat had a stopover for a flight transfer.

Wang said China hails the DPRK's commitment to the denuclearization of the peninsula and the efforts it has made for easing tensions.

Ri said the DPRK will work as guided by the meeting between the two top leaders and maintain close strategic communication with China.

Song Tao, head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, led a Chinese art troupe to the DPRK in mid-April and met with Kim. Kim told Song that he hoped the two countries would reinforce their exchanges and cooperation in various fields. The DPRK is ready to learn from China, Kim said.

Kim visited the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang and also greeted Chinese people who had been injured in a deadly bus crash in the country's North Hwanghae province. The crash killed 32 Chinese tourists and four DPRK citizens.