CHINA’S Premier Li Qiang will go to North Korea this week, making the highest-level visit by a Chinese leader since 2019.

Mr Li will lead a government delegation from Thursday to Saturday to attend events marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Workers Party of Korea, which governs the North, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said today.

China has long been the North Korean government’s most important ally and source of support.

A statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry called China and North Korea “traditional friends and neighbours” and said it was “an unswerving strategic policy” of the Chinese government and the ruling Communist Party “to maintain, consolidate and develop” relations with North Korea.

Vietnamese Communist Party general secretary To Lam will also visit North Korea this week for the anniversary celebrations, his country’s government announced on Monday.

It will be the first visit by a Vietnamese leader to North Korea since 2007, Vietnam’s state media said.

Also attending the celebrations will be the president of Laos, Thongloun Sisoulith, North Korea’s official news agency reported last week. He is also general secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited China last month, joining Russian President Vladimir Putin and others at a Chinese military parade in Beijing.