BEIJING – China’s vice president will visit North Korea this week for Korean War commemorations following a period of strained relations between the communist neighbors.
Vice President Li Yuanchao will be the highest ranking Chinese official to visit North Korea since Kim Jong Un took over as leader of the impoverished hard-line communist state upon his father’s death in December 2011.
The trip lasting Thursday through Sunday affirms a warming trend in relations between a deeply isolated Pyongyang and Beijing, its only real ally and key source of economic assistance.
The statement posted Wednesday on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website said Li will visit for 60th anniversary commemorations of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, in which China fought on the North’s side against U.N. forces led by the United States.
That shared history, in which troops sent by Mao Zedong likely saved the North Korean regime from annihilation, has been the default fallback for the sides through periods of ambivalence bordering on animosity.