China: media, ‘Xi to visit North Korea next week’

(Adnkronos) – Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea next week. Chinese state media announced this. State broadcaster CCTV reported that Xi Jinping will visit Pyongyang from June 8 to 9 at the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and it will be his first trip to Pyongyang in seven years. Beijing represents a vital source of political and economic support for North Korea, one of the most diplomatically isolated countries in the world and subject to heavy international sanctions. The upcoming meeting will be Xi’s first official overseas trip this year, and follows the summits he hosted last month with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “China is meeting with leaders from all over the world, coordinating positions and playing a mediating role,” Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University in South Korea, told AFP.