Chinese leader Xi Jinping will make his first visit to North Korea as president on Thursday, state-run media from both countries reported Monday, just over a week before Xi is due to meet U.S. leader Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe separately on the sidelines of the Osaka Group of 20 summit.
"At the invitation of Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and president of the People's Republic of China, will pay a state visit to the DPRK from June 20 to 21," the official Korean Central News Agency announced in a brief dispatch using the North's formal name.
Chinese state-run media also reported on the visit in what appeared to be a simultaneous announcement of the trip.