The government has expressed hope that a visit to North Korea by a top-level Chinese official will help ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
 
The comment comes after the North’s Korea Central News Agency reported Sunday that Liu Yunshan, a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo, will lead a Chinese delegation attending a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party.
 
The Chinese delegation will make the visit at the invitation of the party’s Central Committee.
 
Seoul's Unification Ministry Spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said in a regular news briefing Monday that Liu is the first Chinese Politburo member to visit the North since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took power.
 
The spokesman added that North Korean and Chinese high-level officials’ visits to each other are meaningful, expressing hope that such personal exchanges will help promote North Korea’s denuclearization and bring peace and stability to Northeast Asia.