Xi to pay state visit to DPRK at end of week

Leaders to chart course for bilateral relations, exchange views on peninsula situation

President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Thursday and Friday, the first by a top leader of China in 14 years.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, was invited by Kim Jong-un, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, for the visit, the first since Xi became the CPC's top leader at the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.