(4th LD) China's Xi to visit N. Korea next week for 1st time since 2019

(ATTN: UPDATES with remarks from a South Korean presidential official in last para)By Woo Jae-yeon

SEOUL, June 5 (Yonhap) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to North Korea next week, Pyongyang's state media said Friday, a rare trip that will likely highlight the countries' efforts to strengthen their ties.

Xi will visit Pyongyang on Monday and Tuesday at the invitation of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, without providing further details.

China also confirmed the visit, with a spokesperson for the international department of the ruling party's central committee making the announcement, according to Xinhua News Agency.

It will mark Xi's first visit to North Korea in nearly seven years.

Xi last traveled to Pyongyang on June 20-21, 2019, his first state visit to the reclusive North since taking office in late 2012. At that time, he had summit talks with North Korean leader Kim.

The two leaders last met in September, when Kim took a trip to Beijing for the 80th anniversary of China's Victory Day, where he and Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a military parade alongside Xi.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) chats with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sept. 4, 2025, in this file photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the next day. Kim visited the Chinese capital to attend a military parade marking the 80th anniversary the previous day of Japan's surrender and the end of World War II. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

Kim, for his part, has visited Beijing five times to meet Xi since taking power after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.

The upcoming Kim-Xi meeting comes as military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow continue to deepen. Last month, North Korean troops marched alongside Russian forces in Moscow's Victory Day parade for the first time, which commemorates the Soviet Union's victory over Germany in World War II.

For Beijing, the visit is a chance to reaffirm its influence over the Korean Peninsula as Pyongyang presses ahead with expanding its military and nuclear capabilities.

Just a day before Pyongyang and Beijing announced the upcoming visit, the KCNA reported Kim had visited what the North described as a newly operational nuclear site, vowing to expand its nuclear capabilities "at an exponential rate."

He said the country's "weapons-grade nuclear material production capacity more than doubled" over the past five yea