China's Xi to visit North Korea next week
Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit North Korea next week, state media said on June 5, his first trip abroad this year after hosting a series of leaders as Beijing asserts itself as a global diplomatic superpower.
State broadcaster CCTV said Xi would visit from June 8 to 9 at the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his first trip to Pyongyang in seven years.
Beijing is a vital source of political and economic support to North Korea, which is one of the most diplomatically isolated countries in the world and under heavy international sanctions.
The upcoming meeting will be Xi's first official overseas trip this year, and comes after he hosted back-to-back summits with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin last month.
